Astronomy Picture of the Day

Observatory / Course Archives / ASTR 110 Fall 2019 / Schader

Butterfly Nebula

The butterfly nebula is an incredible sight to behold and a generally awe inspiring sight of a star in its final stages of life. A massive expulsion of gas from the star which is no longer capable of fusion is what we end up seeing in the picture. The incredible colors are generated by the ultra violet light emitted by the now dead star which is also a staggering 400,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Its age resides along the lines of only 1900 years old! It is not uncommon for observed white dwarf nebulae to be young as the lifespan of their colorful appearance is short lived in cosmic terms. One may observe the star within the center of the constellation Scorpius. It is observed also at only 3,800 light years away, which may be in fact quite close in comparison to the total diameter of our Milky Way galaxy at over 100,000 lightyears across. Another unique characteristic observed in the Butterfly Nebula is that it is one of the few hot white dwarf nebulas where the gas has kept a disc like shape.

Antennae Galaxies

The Antennae Galaxies are an amazing sight of a vast cosmic collision on an almost unfathomable scale. Billions of stars are merging into one large galaxy, with the spawning of billions more as a result of the stirring up of the galactic dust and nebulae. The resulting 'boom' or 'explosion' in the population of younger hot stars are what appear as many of the blue colors, and to which the pink and red even show the gasses in which more stars are still being formed! These stars are incredibly vibrant but will likely only live for millions to tens of millions of years, not billions as the older yellow stars will in the remaining cores of each galaxy. This new generation of stars will likely form ‘super star clusters’ as astronomers have predicted. Within the next 400 millions years the merging will be complete!

Among the notable features of the galaxies one may notice the ‘tidal tails’ which were formed during the initial contact between the two galaxies approximately 300 million years ago. Recent astronomical observations have also uncovered other interesting data suggesting that the galaxies are also closer than previously thought at, 45 million light years instead of the original 65 million. Also x-ray inspection has revealed that ejection of large amounts of mass from many varying supernovae will spawn not only a new generation of stars but also a new wave of mineral rich planets containing elements such as oxygen, iron, magnesium and silicon, the elements in many regards for life!

Jupiter's Red Spot

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a fascinating artifact studied for centuries. People first began to record its activities and size in 1830 and it may have been known to exist for as long as 350 years! It measures in at over 10,000 miles in width, which is 1.3 times as large as Earth itself. Present day estimates suggest it to be shrinking as well. With air hotter than lava, and the color arising from an ammonia acetylene gas mix absorbing UV light in the atmosphere, it’s seemingly deadly composition provides us with a beautiful sight for any amerature astronomer.

One of the first questions you may ask is how it has been able to survive for so long, compared to Earth storms which only typically last for a few weeks. The lack of a surface on Jupiter allows such storms and weather patterns to go on for much longer as without a surface as on Earth, friction is greatly reduced and the storm is not so easily slowed down. Also astonishingly recent scientific estimates show that Jupiter’s atmosphere above the Great Red Spot may contain oxygen and measurable amounts of water! It could be a very interesting discovery indeed if we wish to find sources of fuel for our future space endeavors.