Astronomy Picture of the Day 6-10-03

NASA ^ | 6-10-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 June 10

Zooming in on the First Stars
Credit & Copyright: Visualization: Ralf Kaehler (ZIB) & Tom Abel (Penn. State)
Simulation: Tom Abel (Penn. State), Greg Bryan (Oxford) & Mike Norman (UCSD)

Explanation: What became of the first stars? No known stars appear to be composed of truly primordial gas -- all of the stars around us have too many heavy elements. Our own Sun is thought to be a third generation star, with many second-generation stars seen in globular clusters. This year, however, significant progress is being made on solving this perennial astronomical mystery. Analyses of recent WMAP satellite images of the cosmic microwave background indicate that this primordial light was ionized by a first generation of stars that came and went only 200 million years after the Big Bang. Additionally computer codes are now more-accurately tracking the likely creation and evolution of first stars in the early universe. Pictured above at a scale of one light-month, a computer-generated model resolves the scale of the first stars, indicating clean cocoons that condensed into stars always over 30 times the mass of our Sun. Stars like this quickly fused pristine gas into heavier elements and then exploded, seeding the universe with elements that would become part of the stars we know and, ultimately, ourselves.

[petuniasevan]

I got back from vacation yesterday and have finally gotten around to doing the APOD. I see that some APODs were not posted in my absence, so I will simply post (or repost) the images ONLY from those 8 days.

2003 June 9

The Pencil Nebula Supernova Shockwave

2003 June 8

Rhea: Saturn's Second Largest Moon

2003 June 7

Warped Spiral Galaxy ESO 510-13

2003 June 6

Sun, Moon, Hot Air Balloon

2003 June 5

Ring of Fire from Cape Wrath

2003 June 4

Eclipse in the Mist

2003 June 3

The Milky Way Behind an Eclipsed Moon

2003 June 2

The Fogs of Mars

[petuniasevan]

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Thanks for posting the ones we missed!

[sistergoldenhair]

Welcome back.
Thanks for the ping.

[xJones]

When you come back from vacation, you do it with a Big Bang! Thanks for the beautiful photos.

[RightWhale]

Thanks. Several of those were posted eventually. BTW, what does "this primordial light was ionized" mean? Any idea?

[firewalk]

Welcome back

[petuniasevan]

Not sure. GASES are ionized (fluorescence). Light itself is the result, not the subject.

Maybe just sloppy/lazy writing?

[RightWhale]

I think it was supposed to say polarized.

[fnord]

or maybe it meant from ionized gas ...

[fnord]

that hot air balloon pic is awesome ... welcome back

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Beautiful!

Hope you had a nice vacation! :)