The Eye of God

[lizcam]

I got this in an email today. I thought you all might like to see it (although I\'m sure many of you have seen it before). I\'m going to post some of the text with it as well.

\"This photo is a very rare one, taken by NASA. This kind of event occurs once in 3000 years.

This is a picture NASA took with the Hubbell telescope.
Called \'The Eye of God.\'\"

 

[squidders]

yup, this is a genuine composite of photos taken by NASA... It was on their astronomy picture of the day... there is a high resolution one here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030510.html

It\'s VERY cool.... also if it actually is the eye of god, he\'s a cyclops or winking.

 

[rocketandroll]

Is that a supernova remnant?

Looks awesome though... a big telescope is high on my list of \'things I must get when I have some spare cash\'!


Ben

 

[darklord]

i want a telescope too!
i remember the supernova in 1989 (i think) was visible to the naked eye. i didnt realise what i had seen at the time

 

[squidders]

I don\'t think it\'s a supernova... I read that it was a star approximate in size to our one and they they just go bang and make white dwarves.

I think a star has to be much bigger to go supernova... .there must be some astronomy types on this site to correct me though.

 

[darklord]

its a planetary nebula, generally the star has to be a certain size to go supernova, smaller ones do like this one. it basically \'leaks\' its gasses out
i think thats the jist of it anyway!

 

[Rodnik]

Stars can take a few different paths on their \"death\", and this is one of \'em. The path taken is a fairly direct correlation to the original mass of the star.

The really massive stars will supernova and either:
a: become a neutron star
b: become a black hole

The less massive stars will nebula and move through the white/black dwarf stages. This will most likely be the path our Sun takes when it dies.

Here\'s one of the potential next candidates for supernova--

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rho_Cassiopeiae

Rho is an interesting star in it\'s own right---without the prospect of supernova

Another candidate for supernova---which would be absolutely awesome if it did it in our lifetime---considering it would potentially outshine the moon when it did....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse

 

[darklord]

apparently the helix nebula (eye of god ) appeared in the latest battlestar galactica

 

[Gilvan Blight]

Originally posted by rocketandroll
Looks awesome though... a big telescope is high on my list of \'things I must get when I have some spare cash\'!
Ben

Aren\'t most photos like this taken with special lenses? I remember seeing some amamzing stuff on the NASA sight then reading that the pictures were actually shots of the radiation, or an X-Ray or Ultraviolet light and that most of this wouldn\'t be visible to the naked eye. I think in some cases colour was actually added to diferentiate different radiation levels.

Maybe I\'m remembering it wrong but I remember thinking how fake Sci-Fi was that Space was filled with all these colourful nebula that you wouldn\'t even be able to see (not that Sci-Fi isn\'t fake enough already).

 

[darklord]

a lot of these photos are composites of different pictures like x-ray and gamma and all that shebang

 

[supervike]

Originally posted by squidders

It\'s VERY cool.... also if it actually is the eye of god, he\'s a cyclops or winking.

Or HIS eyes are REALLY far apart....


It\'s very cool however! I had that as my computer wallpaper for some time. I find peace in there....

 

[Gilvan Blight]

Yeah, exactly. Which means they don\'t actually look like that. We just make them look pretty. I do realize we also do it so we can differentiate the different \'parts\' of the nebula, but I think the reason this \'eye\' is blue is because some scientist decided it looked like an eye, not because the nebula actually has a blue corona in the middle.

 

[darklord]

reminds me of the jesus face on mars

 

[airhead]

just a dumb question:
If all the stars got made at the same time at the big bang, then how come some are old and burnt out?

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by airhead
just a dumb question:
If all the stars got made at the same time at the big bang, then how come some are old and burnt out?

I thought that the Big Bang was the intial dispersal of matter which then gradually coalesed into the accumulations which eventually became the stars.

 

[mattsterbenz]

Originally posted by airhead
just a dumb question:
If all the stars got made at the same time at the big bang, then how come some are old and burnt out?

Big geek post:

They were not all made at the time of the big bang. Stars are forming currently, and many many more have yet to form.

Stars form from MASSIVE clouds of hydrogen gas in deep space (think several hundred times the size of our Solar System). Over several million years they collapse in on themselves due to gravity. The intense pressure causes heat, and when the heat is strong enough it eventually creates nuclear fusion. The outward force of the fusion balances with the inward force of gravity. When the fuel gets used up, that pressure is set off balance, causing different things to happen depending on the star\'s size.

The larger the star, the shorter it\'s livespan, and the smaller the star, the longer it\'s lifespan. This has to do with the amount of hydrogen (fuel) and the rate at which it fuses hydrogen atoms into helium. A star the size of our sun will last about 10 billion years, a star 1/10 the size of our sun could last 10 trillion years (we obviously don\'t know this for sure since the known universe is not that old. This is only a scientific estimate based on the \"Main Sequence\" charts). A star 10 times the size of our sun may only last a few hundred million years, etc...

Phew...

-Matt

 

[supervike]

Originally posted by airhead
just a dumb question:
If all the stars got made at the same time at the big bang, then how come some are old and burnt out?

They didn\'t get made at the same time. Although, the theory goes, that the explosion made all the matter at the same time ( i think).

But, as some of the matter cooled, it coalesed into stars, and planets, while still racing away from the center of the explosion.

So since then, many stars have died, been reborn, and continue to do so.

EDIT: I like Masterbenz answer better!

EDIT EDIT: I like DRs answer better too!

Damn slow typing fingers of mine.

 

[PegaZus]

And to add to the above, the first \"stuff\" in the universe was nearly all just hydrogen and helium. The first stars were very very massive, and died quickly, spraying the heavier elements out. That\'s where carbon and iron come from... dead stars. And without dead stars exploding, there\'d be no terra firma to stand upon.

So, if you need an excuse to drink, drink because you just found out that you used to be a star! :beer:

 

[supervike]

What do you mean to used to be?


That\'s right, bask in my glow!

 

[squidders]

<BASK>oooh yeah</BASK>