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Astronomy Picture of the Day 7-04-03
NASA ^ | 7-04-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

Posted on 07/04/2003 12:38:49 AM PDT by 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 July 4
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
 the highest resolution version available.

N49's Cosmic Blast
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA), Y. Chu (UIUC) et al., NASA

Explanation: Scattered debris from a cosmic supernova explosion lights up the sky in this gorgeous composited image based on data from the Hubble Space Telescope. Cataloged as N49, these glowing filaments of shocked gas span about 30 light-years in our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Light from the original exploding star reached Earth thousands of years ago, but N49 also marks the location of another energetic outburst -- an extremely intense blast of gamma-rays detected by satellites on March 5, 1979. That date marked the beginning of an exciting journey in astrophysics which led researchers to the understanding of an exotic new class of stars. The source of the "March 5th Event" is now attributed to a magnetar - a highly magnetized, spinning neutron star also born in the ancient stellar explosion which created supernova remnant N49. The magnetar hurtles through the supernova debris cloud at over 1,200 kilometers per second.




TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: magnetar; nebula; remnant; supernova
Happy 4th!

Explanation: What do you call a neutron star with a super-strong magnetic field? You guessed it ... a Magnetar. Imagine a star with more mass than the sun, the density of a neutron, and a magnetic field about a thousand trillion (a one followed by 15 zeroes) times stronger than Earth's.


Mars rover launch delayed into the weekend
Launch of Delta 2 rocket and Mars rover Opportunity has been delayed to Saturday night, NASA officials announced Monday. The further slip in the liftoff will give workers more time to fix loose insulating material on the rocket's first stage and perform tests.
   MISSION STATUS CENTER - updates!
   LAUNCH EVENTS TIMELINE
   GROUND TRACK MAP

1 posted on 07/04/2003 12:38:50 AM PDT by petuniasevan
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To: MozartLover; Joan912; NovemberCharlie; snowfox; Dawgsquat; viligantcitizen; theDentist; ...

2 posted on 07/04/2003 12:39:53 AM PDT by petuniasevan (Wind farms to surround DC: National energy needs to be met with hot air to spare...)
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To: petuniasevan
Thanks for the ping
Happy 4th to you too (-:
3 posted on 07/04/2003 6:06:45 AM PDT by firewalk
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To: petuniasevan
Thanks.
Enjoy the holiday.
4 posted on 07/04/2003 7:15:41 AM PDT by sistergoldenhair (Don't be a sheep. People hate sheep. They eat sheep.)
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To: petuniasevan
Thank you.

Also, is it me or does the top top pic look like the continent of Africa?
5 posted on 07/04/2003 8:48:01 AM PDT by I_Love_My_Husband
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To: petuniasevan
neat stuff! and happy 4th too!
6 posted on 07/04/2003 9:00:20 AM PDT by wafflehouse (the hell you say!)
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To: petuniasevan
What do you call a neutron star with a super-strong magnetic field?

LOL! For a quarter of a second I thought this question was the first part of a joke!

7 posted on 07/05/2003 9:03:36 AM PDT by yankeedame ("Born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.")
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