Original Art & Photography from GOD - slow loading many pics

Dark Globule in IC 1396
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured a glowing stellar nursery within a dark globule that is opaque at visible light. These new images pierce through the obscuration to reveal the birth of new protostars, or embryonic stars, and young stars never before seen.

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is an elongated dark globule within the emission nebula IC 1396 in the constellation of Cepheus. Located at a distance of 2,450 light-years, the globule is a condensation of dense gas that is barely surviving the strong ionizing radiation from a nearby massive star. The globule is being compressed by the surrounding ionized gas.

The large composite image on the left is a product of combining data from the observatory's multiband imaging photometer and the infrared array camera. The thermal emission at 24 microns measured by the photometer (red) is combined with near-infrared emission from the camera at 3.6/4.5 microns (blue) and from 5.8/8.0 microns (green). The colors of the diffuse emission and filaments vary, and are a combination of molecular hydrogen (which tends to be green) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (brown) emissions.

Within the globule, a half dozen newly discovered protostars are easily discernible as the bright red-tinted objects, mostly along the southern rim of the globule. These were previously undetected at visible wavelengths due to obscuration by the thick cloud ('globule body') and by dust surrounding the newly forming stars. The newborn stars form in the dense gas because of compression by the wind and radiation from a nearby massive star (located outside the field of view to the left). The winds from this unseen star are also responsible for producing the spectacular filamentary appearance of the globule itself, which resembles that of a flying dragon.

The Spitzer Space Telescope also sees many newly discovered young stars, often enshrouded in dust, which may be starting the nuclear fusion that defines a star. These young stars are too cool to be seen at visible wavelengths. Both the protostars and young stars are bright in the mid-infrared because of their surrounding discs of solid material. A few of the visible-light stars in this image were found to have excess infrared emission, suggesting they are more mature stars surrounded by primordial remnants from their formation, or from crumbling asteroids and comets in their planetary systems.

The double cluster NGC 1850, found in one of our neighboring galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is an eye-catching object. It is a young, "globular-like" star cluster ?- a type of object unknown in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Moreover, NGC 1850 is surrounded by a filigree pattern of diffuse gas, which scientists believe was created by the explosion of massive stars.

NGC 1850, imaged here with the NASA Hubble Space Telescope, is an unusual double cluster that lies in the bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. After the 30 Doradus complex, NGC 1850 is the brightest star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is representative of a special class of objects ?- young, globular-like star clusters ?- that have no counterpart in our galaxy. The two components of the cluster are both relatively young and consist of a main, globular-like cluster in the center and an even younger, smaller cluster, seen below and to the right, composed of extremely hot, blue stars and, fainter red T-Tauri stars. The main cluster is about 50 million years old; the smaller cluster is only 4 million years old.

One of Hubble's main contributions to the study of NGC 1850 is in the investigation of star formation at both ends of the stellar mass scale ?- the low-mass T-Tauri stars and the high-mass OB stars.

T-Tauri stars are young, solar-class stars that are still forming, so young that they may have not started converting hydrogen to helium, which is how our Sun produces its energy. Instead they radiate energy released by their own gravitational contraction. By investigating these stars astronomers learn about the births and lives of low-mass stars. T-Tauri stars tend to occur in crowded environments, but are themselves faint, making them difficult to distinguish with ground-based telescopes. However, Hubble's fine angular resolution can pick out these stars, even in galaxies other than our own.

Hubble also has advantages when studying very massive stars. These stars emit large amounts of energetic ultraviolet radiation, which is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere. From its position above the atmosphere, Hubble can detect ultraviolet light from these massive stars. The Hubble data can then be analyzed and used to characterize the stars' properties.

This Hubble image is a good example of the interaction between gas, dust, and stars. Millions of years ago massive stars in the main cluster exploded as supernovas, forming the spectacular filigree pattern of diffuse gas visible in the image. It is believed that the birth of new stars can be triggered by the enormous forces in the shock fronts where the supernova blast waves hit and compress the gas. The nebulous gas is part of the N103 super bubble and looks similar to the well-known supernova remnant Cygnus Loop in our own Milky Way.

This Hubble image is a good example of the interaction between gas, dust, and stars. Millions of years ago massive stars in the main cluster exploded as supernovas, forming the spectacular filigree pattern of diffuse gas visible in the image. It is believed that the birth of new stars can be triggered by the enormous forces in the shock fronts where the supernova blast waves hit and compress the gas. The nebulous gas is part of the N103 super bubble and looks similar to the well-known supernova remnant Cygnus Loop in our own Milky Way.

This Hubble image is a good example of the interaction between gas, dust, and stars. Millions of years ago massive stars in the main cluster exploded as supernovas, forming the spectacular filigree pattern of diffuse gas visible in the image. It is believed that the birth of new stars can be triggered by the enormous forces in the shock fronts where the supernova blast waves hit and compress the gas. The nebulous gas is part of the N103 super bubble and looks similar to the well-known supernova remnant Cygnus Loop in our own Milky Way.

This Hubble image is a good example of the interaction between gas, dust, and stars. Millions of years ago massive stars in the main cluster exploded as supernovas, forming the spectacular filigree pattern of diffuse gas visible in the image. It is believed that the birth of new stars can be triggered by the enormous forces in the shock fronts where the supernova blast waves hit and compress the gas. The nebulous gas is part of the N103 super bubble and looks similar to the well-known supernova remnant Cygnus Loop in our own Milky Way.

SPace is just cool. People spend so much time tryin to recreate its essence in computer grafx but its not like the real thing

What a great concept. You do not have to go so far though. There is equal majesty in a rock, or a tree.

i agree larryweiss about the rock and tree thing
ill be getting round to posting some nature pictures in future... it is all gods creation after all
i just wanted to start with something a bit more far out

Hubble Peers Inside a Celestial Geode

In this unusual image, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures a rare view of the celestial equivalent of a geode ?- a gas cavity carved by the stellar wind and intense ultraviolet radiation from a hot young star.

Real geodes are baseball-sized, hollow rocks that start out as bubbles in volcanic or sedimentary rock. Only when these inconspicuous round rocks are split in half by a geologist, do we get a chance to appreciate the inside of the rock cavity that is lined with crystals. In the case of Hubble's 35 light-year diameter "celestial geode" the transparency of its bubble-like cavity of interstellar gas and dust reveals the treasures of its interior.

The object, called N44F, is being inflated by a torrent of fast-moving particles (called a "stellar wind") from an exceptionally hot star once buried inside a cold dense cloud. Compared with our Sun (which is losing mass through the so-called "solar wind"), the central star in N44F is ejecting more than a 100 million times more mass per second. The hurricane of particles moves much faster at about 4 million miles per hour (7 million kilometers per hour), as opposed to about 0.9 million miles per hour (1.5 million kilometers per hour) for our Sun. Because the bright central star does not exist in empty space but is surrounded by an envelope of gas, the stellar wind collides with this gas, pushing it out, like a snowplow. This forms a bubble, whose striking structure is clearly visible in the crisp Hubble image.

The nebula N44F is one of a handful of known interstellar bubbles. Bubbles like these have been seen around evolved massive stars (Wolf-Rayet stars), and also around clusters of stars (where they are called "super-bubbles"). But they have rarely been viewed around isolated stars, as is the case here.

On closer inspection N44F harbors additional surprises. The interior wall of its gaseous cavity is lined with several four- to eight-light-year-high finger-like columns of cool dust and gas. (The structure of these "columns" is similar to the Eagle Nebula's iconic "pillars of creation" photographed by Hubble a decade ago, and is seen in a few other nebulae as well). The fingers are created by a blistering ultraviolet radiation from the central star. Like windsocks caught in a gale, they point in the direction of the energy flow. These pillars look small in this image only because they are much farther away from us than the Eagle Nebula's pillars.

N44F is located about 160,000 light-years in our neighboring dwarf galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, in the direction of the southern constellation Dorado. N44F is part of the larger N44 complex, which is a large super-bubble, blown out by the combined action of stellar winds and multiple supernova explosions. N44 itself is roughly 1,000 light-years across. Several compact star-forming regions, including N44F, are found along the rim of the central super-bubble.

Our Sun and solar system are embedded in a broad pancake of stars deep within the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. Even from a distance, it is impossible to see our galaxy's large-scale features other than the disk.

The next best thing is to look farther out into the universe at galaxies that are similar in shape and structure to our home galaxy. Other spiral galaxies like NGC 3949, pictured in the Hubble image, fit the bill. Like our Milky Way, this galaxy has a blue disk of young stars peppered with bright pink star-birth regions. In contrast to the blue disk, the bright central bulge is made up of mostly older, redder stars.

NGC 3949 lies about 50 million light-years from Earth. It is a member of a loose cluster of some six or seven dozens of galaxies located in the direction of the Big Dipper, in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). It is one of the larger galaxies of this cluster.

This false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a dying star (center) surrounded by a cloud of glowing gas and dust. Thanks to Spitzer's dust-piercing infrared eyes, the new image also highlights a never-before-seen feature -- a giant ring of material (red) slightly offset from the cloud's core . This clumpy ring consists of material that was expelled from the aging star.

The star and its cloud halo constitute a "planetary nebula" called NGC 246. When a star like our own Sun begins to run out of fuel, its core shrinks and heats up, boiling off the star's outer layers. Leftover material shoots outward, expanding in shells around the star. This ejected material is then bombarded with ultraviolet light from the central star's fiery surface, producing huge, glowing clouds -- planetary nebulas -- that look like giant jellyfish in space.

In this image, the expelled gases appear green, and the ring of expelled material appears red. Astronomers believe the ring is likely made of hydrogen molecules that were ejected from the star in the form of atoms, then cooled to make hydrogen pairs. The new data will help explain how planetary nebulas take shape, and how they nourish future generations of stars.

How often does a full moon occur twice in a single month? Exactly once in a Blue Moon. In fact, the modern usage of the term "Blue Moon" refers to the second Full Moon in a single month.
The term "Blue Moon" has recently been traced to an error in a magazine article in 1946. It is possible for the Moon to appear tinged by a blue hue, sometimes caused by fine dirt circulating in the Earth's atmosphere, possibly from a volcanic explosion. The above picture was taken not during a full moon but through a morning sky that appeared dark blue. The bright crescent is the only part directly exposed to sunlight - the rest of the Moon glows from sunlight reflected from the Earth. In this dramatic photo, however, the planet Jupiter is also visible along with its four largest moons.

I just thought that I would let you know that I'm still reading with interest . These are beautiful pictures, as always .

I was contemplating the majesty of a rock, and this song came to mind:

THE MAJESTY OF ROCK
Spinal Tap

There's a pulse in the new-born sun;
A beat in the heat of noon;
There's a song as the day grows long,
And a tempo in the tides of the moon.
It's all around us and it's everywhere,
And it's deeper than Royal blue.
And it feels so real you can feel the feeling!
And that's The Majesty Of Rock!
The fantasy of Roll!
The ticking of the clock,
The wailing of the soul!
The prisoner in the dock,
The digger in the hole,
We're in this together...and ever...
In the shade of a jungle glade,
Or the rush of the crushing street,
On the plain, on the foamy main,
You can never escape from the beat.
It's in the mud and it's in your blood
And its conquest is complete.
And all that you can do is just surrender.
To the Majesty of Rock!
The Pageantry of Roll!
The crowing of the cock,
The running of the foal!
The shepherd with his flock,
The miner with his coal,
We're in this together...and ever...
When we die, do we haunt the sky?
Do we lurk in the murk of the seas?
What then? Are we born again?
Just to sit asking questions like these?
I know, for I told me so,
And I'm sure each of you quite agrees:
The more it stays the same, the less it changes!
And that's The Majesty Of Rock!
The Mystery of Roll!
The darning of the sock,
The scoring of the goal!
The farmer takes a wife
The barber takes a pole.
We're in this together...and ever...

thanks drom
is the thought that counts as always

and cav i think that calls for a meteorite posting session...
spinal tap...?
werent they like a made up band from a movie??

Meteorites come in 3 main types

Iron
Stony-Iron
Stone

Iron Meteorites

Iron meteorites are one of the most durable and easiest to recognize of all the meteorites, but only one in ten meteorites that fall from the sky is of theiron variety. The other 90% are stone meteorites. Iron meteorites are fragments of the once-molten metal core of an asteroid or demolished moon probably from the asteroid belt. As these moons cooled, their cores crystallized and through later collisions, were destroyed. Chemically, they are an alloy, or combination, of iron (Fe) and nickel (Ni), of approximately the same density and hardness as a blacksmith's anvil.

Silicated Irons

Silicated iron meteorites are sort of a group between groups. While considered irons, they nevertheless contain significant amounts of silicates and other inclusions. Occasionally, as in the case of the Caddo County specimen, two or three categories of meteorite are represented in the same piece at once. Because of their silicate content, silicated irons tend to be lighter than pure irons.

Stony-Iron Meteorites
The term "mesosiderite" (meso - meaning between, siderite - meaning metal-bearing) is a remnant of the classification system devised in 1863 by Maskelyne. Confusion over the classification of meteorites has been going on for decades and persists today. Now scientists are realizing that much of the classification is arbitrary and that many meteorites cross categories.

Col Man, Spinal Tap were indeed a made up band from a movie, which happens to be hilarious. Somehow, the song seemed appropriate, and the meteorites are a very nice compliment.

Pallasites

While all pallasites are by definition a mix of nickel-iron and olivine, the nickel-iron matrix can vary in relative nickel content, and the olivine crystals can range from nearly perfect spherules to broken up, angular fragments. The olivine crystals can also be anywhere from a few millimeters in diameter to groups of crystals literally the size of footballs!

ah yesssss....i remember it well

Stone Meteorites

Stones represent the third main group of meteorites, by far the most diverse group of the three. Nine out of ten meteorites that fall from the sky are stone meteorites. Fewer are found, however, primarily because they resemble Earth rocks, and are therefore harder to recognize. Stone meteorites also decompose more rapidly under terrestrial conditions than irons.
Stone meteorites are divided into two main groups; those with chondrules, the chondrites and those without, the achondrites. Chondrules, from the Greek word for "seed", are the inclusions for which the two types are named. These round spheres of silicates range in size from the microscopic, to the size of marbles. Most, however, are the size of steel shot pellets. These chondrules are time-travelers, dating from the very beginnings of the solar system, some 4.6 billion years ago.

Formed as clouds of pre-solar dust began to condense, these tiny balls were packed into larger and larger masses, eventually forming small moons and asteroids. Some of the "parent bodies" were destroyed before they accumulated enough matter to cause re-melting of their core material. Bits of this material usually contains chondrites in their earliest form.

Other parent bodies continued to accrete material until the mounting high-pressures within destroyed all evidence of the original chondritic structure. Bits of this material represent the achondrites, or those without chondrules.