leviathan8: Orion watching over ALMA Standing watch over the antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), Orion, the Hunter, shines high in the Chilean night sky. With its distinctive hourglass shape and the three bright stars of Orion’s Belt in the centre, the constellation is easily recognisable. Taken from the southern hemisphere, this image shows Orion’s sword above the Belt. The sword is home to one of the most stunning features of the sky — the Orion Nebula — which appears as the middle “star” in the sword, its fuzzy nebulosity visible to the naked eye under good conditions. The three ALMA antennas visible in the image represent only a small part of the complete ALMA array, which has a total of 66 antennas. ALMA combines the signals from its antennas, separated over distances of up to 16 kilometres, to form a single giant telescope, using a technique called interferometry. Credit: ESO/A. Russell
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leviathan8:

Orion watching over ALMA

Standing watch over the antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), Orion, the Hunter, shines high in the Chilean night sky. With its distinctive hourglass shape and the three bright stars of Orion’s Belt in the centre, the constellation is easily recognisable. Taken from the southern hemisphere, this image shows Orion’s sword above the Belt. The sword is home to one of the most stunning features of the sky — the Orion Nebula — which appears as the middle “star” in the sword, its fuzzy nebulosity visible to the naked eye under good conditions.

The three ALMA antennas visible in the image represent only a small part of the complete ALMA array, which has a total of 66 antennas. ALMA combines the signals from its antennas, separated over distances of up to 16 kilometres, to form a single giant telescope, using a technique called interferometry.

Credit: ESO/A. Russell

(via distant-traveller)

leviathan8: The Omega Nebula The Omega Nebula  is a region of star formation and shines by excited emission, caused by the higher energy radiation of young stars. Unlike in many other emission nebulae, however, these stars are not obvious in optical images, but hidden in the nebula. Star formation is either still active in this nebula, or ceased very recently. A small cluster of about 35 bright but obscurred stars seems to be embedded in the nebulosity. Image credit: ESO (click image to view high resolution)
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leviathan8:

The Omega Nebula

The Omega Nebula  is a region of star formation and shines by excited emission, caused by the higher energy radiation of young stars. Unlike in many other emission nebulae, however, these stars are not obvious in optical images, but hidden in the nebula. Star formation is either still active in this nebula, or ceased very recently. A small cluster of about 35 bright but obscurred stars seems to be embedded in the nebulosity.

Image credit: ESO (click image to view high resolution)

(via distant-traveller)

the-star-stuff: New Way of Probing Exoplanet Atmospheres For the first time a clever new technique has allowed astronomers to study the atmosphere of an exoplanet in detail — even though it does not pass in front of its parent star. An international team has used ESO’s Very Large Telescope to directly catch the faint glow from the planet Tau Boötis b. They have studied the planet’s atmosphere and measured its orbit and mass precisely for the first time — in the process solving a 15-year old problem. Surprisingly, the team also finds that the planet’s atmosphere seems to be cooler higher up, the opposite of what was expected. The results will be published in the 28 June 2012 issue of the journal Nature.
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the-star-stuff:

New Way of Probing Exoplanet Atmospheres

For the first time a clever new technique has allowed astronomers to study the atmosphere of an exoplanet in detail — even though it does not pass in front of its parent star. An international team has used ESO’s Very Large Telescope to directly catch the faint glow from the planet Tau Boötis b. They have studied the planet’s atmosphere and measured its orbit and mass precisely for the first time — in the process solving a 15-year old problem. Surprisingly, the team also finds that the planet’s atmosphere seems to be cooler higher up, the opposite of what was expected. The results will be published in the 28 June 2012 issue of the journal Nature.

fyeahuniverse: Herbig-Haro 34 (HH-34) Jets of gas can be seen ramming into surrounding interstellar matter of this object in the protostar stage of its evolution. The jets reach speeds of up to 250km/s and the entire thing can be found 1,500ly away near the well-known Orion Nebula. Image credit: FORS2 at ESO
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fyeahuniverse:

Herbig-Haro 34 (HH-34)

Jets of gas can be seen ramming into surrounding interstellar matter of this object in the protostar stage of its evolution. The jets reach speeds of up to 250km/s and the entire thing can be found 1,500ly away near the well-known Orion Nebula.

Image credit: FORS2 at ESO

ecocides: The hazy and aptly named Fine Ring Nebula, shown here, is an unusual planetary nebula. Planetary nebulae form when some dying stars, having expanded into a red giant phase, expel a shell of gas as they evolve into white dwarfs. Most planetary nebulae are either spherical or elliptical in shape, or bipolar (featuring two symmetric lobes of material). | image: ESO
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ecocides:

The hazy and aptly named Fine Ring Nebula, shown here, is an unusual planetary nebula. Planetary nebulae form when some dying stars, having expanded into a red giant phase, expel a shell of gas as they evolve into white dwarfs. Most planetary nebulae are either spherical or elliptical in shape, or bipolar (featuring two symmetric lobes of material). | image: ESO