Cool Space Stuff

Observatory / Course Archives / ASTR 110 Fall 2019 / De Windt

Messier 90

The Messier 90 galaxy is a beautiful spiral galaxy first discovered in 1781 by Charles Messier. It's located 60 million light years away from the Milky Way galaxy in the Virgo galaxy cluster, and is unique in that it's one of the few galaxies approaching us, rather than moving away from us. Because of this advancing movement, the Messier 90 galaxy appears blueshifted, due to the compression of the waves we receive as it moves closer. It's believed that Messier 90 is in the process of breaking away from the Virgo cluster, as its movement towards us is contrary to most other galaxies motion away from the Milky Way.

Spiral galaxies like Messier 90 are known for their distinct spiral arms, which aren't actually solid features. Rather, these arms are particularly dense regions in the galaxy where slower moving material has held up stars to form areas packed with stars, making them appear as solid arms to observers. The blue and red areas seen in these arms are testament to the rapid star creation taking place, as the blue light from large, hot stars and the pinkish-red like from “star nursery” nebulas reach our telescopes. However, due to some neighbours nearby, Messier 90 has lost much of its dust and gas, crucial for star formation. As a result, it doesn't have as much star formation in its arms as other spiral galaxies.

Kepler 10 b

Kepler-10b is a small, rocky planet discovered orbiting the Kepler-10 star about 560 lightyears away in between the Cygnus and Lyra constellations. Data collection first started in 2009, with the terrestrial planet confirmed in 2011 via the transit method. Similar to Earth in size, Kepler-10b has a diameter that is 1.4 times the size of Earth's and 4.5 times the Earth's mass, making it the smallest terrestrial planet found outside the solar system to date.

However, Kepler-10b differs drastically from Earth in its orbital range, which is 20 times closer to its star than Mercury is to the sun, making Kepler-10b extremely hot. Temperatures are estimated to get over 2,500 degrees Farenheit in the daytime, making Kepler-10b incapable of hosting life. If the heat weren't enough, the close exposure to its star means this exoplanet is constantly blasted by solar radiation, making it impossible to hold onto an atmosphere. Kepler-10b may be our exoplanet “twin” in size, but the search continues for a planet like Earth capable of hosting life.

Flame Nebula

NGC 2024, also known by the more apropos name of the Flame Nebula, is a stunning emission nebula located in the Orion Nebula Cluster. 900-1200 lightyears away, the Flame Nebula rubs elbows with other famous stellar features such as the Horsehead Nebula. A young nebula, the Flame Nebula is home to many young stars, and is still forming more. Some stars near the centre of the nebula are as young as 200,000 years old.

The beautiful halos typical of an emission nebula is caused by a nearby bright star, Alnitak, shining large amounts of ultraviolet light, which strips away the electrons from the Hydrogen gas cloud in the Flame Nebula. The result is the gorgeous glowing halo of light the Flame Nebula is known for. This photo was taken by the VISTA telescope at infrared wavelengths, which runs images through coloured glass filters to get coloured images.