The Crab Nebula is likely one of the best known features in the sky because it's the incredibly dramatic and colorful aftermath of an exploding star. Here's one outstanding example of interstellar artwork:
- NASA
That's an explosion so vast the Earth would be nothing but a tiny mote of dust inside it. This was one gigantically big bang when the star went supernova but that wasn't Halloween enough for the scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Scale and Compass for Crab Nebula.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)
This surviving remnant is a tremendous dynamo, spinning 30 times a second. The wildly whirling object produces a deadly magnetic field that generates an electrifying 1 trillion volts. This energetic activity unleashes wisp-like waves that form an expanding ring, most easily seen to the upper right of the pulsar. The nebula's hot gas glows in radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to X-rays. The Hubble observations were taken in visible light as black-and-white exposures. The Advanced Camera for Surveys made the observations between January and September 2012. The green hue has been added to give the image a Halloween theme.
- NASA
That's an explosion so vast the Earth would be nothing but a tiny mote of dust inside it. This was one gigantically big bang when the star went supernova but that wasn't Halloween enough for the scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Scale and Compass for Crab Nebula.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)
That's more like it and now we're seeing some ghosts and apparitions in there. We also notice one of the supporting scientists is Levay and possibly he seeks to confuse us by rearranging his last name so we miss the connection with Anton Lavey. Halloween is all around you. (WIKI: Anton Lavey)
The "heart" is the crushed core of the exploded star. Called a neutron star, it has about the same mass as the sun but is squeezed into an ultra-dense sphere that is only a few miles across and 100 billion times stronger than steel. The tiny powerhouse is the bright star-like object near the center of the image.
This surviving remnant is a tremendous dynamo, spinning 30 times a second. The wildly whirling object produces a deadly magnetic field that generates an electrifying 1 trillion volts. This energetic activity unleashes wisp-like waves that form an expanding ring, most easily seen to the upper right of the pulsar. The nebula's hot gas glows in radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to X-rays. The Hubble observations were taken in visible light as black-and-white exposures. The Advanced Camera for Surveys made the observations between January and September 2012. The green hue has been added to give the image a Halloween theme.
- Science Daily: A death star's ghostly glow
So you see they only used filters to emphasize green because it looks cool for Halloween. This is science we like plus it's got a spooky thing in the center they don't well understand.
And maybe someday it will come out.
No comments:
Post a Comment