NASA Astronomy Pictures Of The Day [Week 52/2009]

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► The Cat's Eye Nebula
Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Cat's Eye Nebula to be one of the most complex planetary nebulae known. In fact, the features seen in the Cat's Eye are so complex that astronomers suspect the bright central object may actually be a binary star system.

► Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217
Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar. Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 6217 was captured in spectacular detail in this recently released image taken by the newly repaired Advanced Camera for Surveys on the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. Visible are dark filamentary dust lanes, young clusters of bright blue stars, red emission nebulas of glowing hydrogen gas, a long bright bar of stars across the center, and a bright active nucleus that likely houses a supermassive black hole. Light takes about 60 million years to reach us from NGC 6217, which spans about 30,000 light years across.

► Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula
This suggestively shaped reflection nebula on the lower left is associated with the bright star Rigel, to its right, in the constellation Orion. More formally known as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by light reflected from Rigel. Fine dust in the nebula reflects the light.

► Spitzer's M101
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog, but definitely not one of the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous, almost twice the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. M101 was also one of the original spiral nebulae observed by Lord Rosse's large 19th century telescope, the Leviathan of Parsontown. Recorded at infrared wavelengths by the Spitzer Space telescope, this 21st century view shows starlight in blue hues while the galaxy's dust clouds are in red. Examining the dust features in the outer rim of the galaxy, astronomers have found that organic molecules present throughout the rest of M101 are lacking. The organic molecules tracked by Spitzer's instruments are called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Of course, PAHs are common components of dust in the Milky Way and on planet Earth are found in soot. PAHs are likely destroyed near the outer edges of M101 by energetic radiation in intense star forming region. Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 lies within the boundaries of the northern constellation Ursa Major, about 25 million light-years away.

► Dust and the Helix Nebula
Dust makes this cosmic eye look red. The eerie Spitzer Space Telescope image shows infrared radiation from the well-studied Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) a mere 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. The two light-year diameter shroud of dust and gas around a central white dwarf has long been considered an excellent example of a planetary nebula, representing the final stages in the evolution of a sun-like star.

► Not a Blue Moon
This bright Full Moon was captured on December 2nd, 2009, shining above a church overlooking the River Po, in Turin, Italy. It was the first Full Moon in December.

► Comet Halley's Nucleus: An Orbiting Iceberg
Formed from the primordial stuff of the Solar System, comet nuclei were thought to resemble very dirty icebergs. But ground-based telescopes revealed only the surrounding cloud of gas and dust of active comets nearing the Sun, clearly resolving only the comet's coma, and the characteristic cometary tails. In 1986, however, the European spacecraft Giotto became one of the first group of spacecraft ever to encounter and photograph the nucleus of a comet, passing and imaging Halley's nucleus as it approached the sun. Data from Giotto's camera was used to generate this enhanced image of the potato shaped nucleus that measures roughly 15 kilometers across.

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Music: "An der schönen blauen Donau" ("The Blue Danube") by Johann Strauss.
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[ReindeerNavy]

Hey, the Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217 was my desktop a year ago!

[dredoc]

Thanks to science we can understand how the universe works and how old it is; even creationists..

[dredoc]

What we see is how the computer mixes all the different rays into visible light imaging, so our eyes can understand the images.

[Miranox]

Nice to see creationists are still around even after the humiliation they suffered last year.

[lilili]

Question: Are these the actual true colors that we see in the pictures, or were added for other purposes?

Thanks, 5 stars :)

[CousinoMacul]

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy. That's sort of what it would look like from "above".

[CYRAPHYM]

@PTR01981 - IMO, it depends on what the word 'heaven' means to a person. You did not Capitalize the "H" so I presume it means the 'sky above' or the 'space' surrounding our planet.

[CYRAPHYM]

@CYRAPHYM - oh wait! Allow me to humiliate myself..."if I can't explain it simply, I don't understand it well enough" - Albert Einstein

[ElectromagneticToxin]

They should slap a motion sickness warning on this... And @MRNastyNate777, these are among the same pictures that tell us that the universe is billions of years old. Things are so much more spectacular and wonderful when you look at them without god-goggles on.

[mtanyc]

If you can't see a human from 220 miles above earth then when someone dies where does their soul go? People die every second on earth where do their souls go? I wish we had more proof and knowledge to the question where do all the dead peoples souls go?

[CYRAPHYM]

@mtanyc - you are funny... highlight, copy and past the above line ( watch?v=HDKBCc_HFxQ ) behind the DOTcom/ in your address bar. You can do it....

[CYRAPHYM]

@PTR01981 - can someone please try to help this young person and define my last sentence in a more layman's manner. TY

[JustAnswers]

so beautiful. the true glory of god's creation.

[CYRAPHYM]

@mtanyc - I hope this helps you. watch?v=HDKBCc_HFxQ

[Miranox]

@british123able You respond to a 1 year-old comment, assume you're more educated than me and then make the statement "if religion troubles you so much then get on the first flight into afghanistan and tell them allah is made up, i will even pay for your passport". You are trying to provoke me in the same way you criticized me of and you made several wrong assumptions about me. This is not the behavior of an educated and rational person.

[CYRAPHYM]

@PTR01981 - so you are one of very few which exists on the limited basis of necessity, only...lol

[gguilford]

God's creation is more glorious than he is. I wonder if that was intended?

[xiyuemaa]

why are these photos anti - creationists :S

[CYRAPHYM]

@british123able - Allah IS MAN MADE... the Universe is The Almighty Creator... oh....I hear silence!

[jugglermartin]

You only say that because there is no evidence to support your claim to a god.