REFLECTION NEBULA DETECTION HOW TO

Located in the northern constellation of Ursa Major (which includes the Big Dipper), M81 is also about 12 million light-years from Earth. This infrared image of the galaxy Messier 81, or M81, reveals lanes of dust illuminated by active star formation throughout the galaxy’s spiral arms. Spitzer observations were the first to reveal the smooth, bright ring of dust (seen in red) circling the galaxy. Located 28 million light-years from Earth, Messier 104 - also called the Sombrero galaxy or M104 - is notable for its nearly edge-on orientation as seen from our planet. With around 100 times the mass of the Sun and at least 1 million times the brightness, Eta Carinae releases a tremendous outflow of energy that has eroded the surrounding nebula. The bright star at the center of this image is Eta Carinae, one of the most massive stars in the Milky Way galaxy. When these stars run out of their internal fuel supply, their outer layers puff up to create the nebula. Our Sun will blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies in about 5 billion years. Located about 700 light-years from Earth, the eye-like Helix nebula is a planetary nebula, or the remains of a Sun-like star. More evolved stars, which have shed their natal material, are blue. The youngest stars in this image are surrounded by dusty disks of material from which the stars - and their potential planetary systems - are forming. Called “Rho Oph” by astronomers and located about 400 light-years from Earth, it’s one of the closest star-forming regions to our own solar system. Newborn stars peek out from beneath their blanket of dust in this image of the Rho Ophiuchi nebula. Young Stars in Their Baby Blanket of Dust This image from Spitzer zooms in on a few members of the sisterhood. The filaments surrounding the stars are dust, and the three colors represent different wavelengths of infrared light.

The Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters, is a frequent target for night sky observers.

Visible only in infrared light, the bow shock is created by winds that flow from the star, making ripples in the surrounding dust. This Spitzer image shows the giant star Zeta Ophiuchi and the bow shock, or shock wave, in front of it. In honor of Spitzer’s Sweet 16 in space, here are 16 amazing images from the mission. Spitzer has additionally investigated some of the universe’s oldest galaxies and stared at the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. It has illuminated hidden collections of dust in a wide variety of locations, including cosmic nebulas (clouds of gas and dust in space), where young stars form, and swirling galaxies. The telescope has also provided weather maps of hot, gaseous exoplanets and revealed a hidden ring around Saturn. Thanks to Spitzer, scientists were able to confirm the presence of seven rocky, Earth-size planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. Since then, the observatory has been lifting the veil on the wonders of the cosmos, from our own solar system to faraway galaxies, using infrared light. 'The Greek alphabet is used to designate the star's apparent brightness compared to other stars in the same constellation.We launched our Spitzer Space Telescope into orbit around the Sunday on Aug. ('In the Bayer system of stellar nomenclature, stars are given names based on their relative brightness within a constellation,' NASA explained.

REFLECTION NEBULA DETECTION HOW TO

'The dust is warmed to relatively cool temperatures by the starlight and glows with infrared light, which WISE can detect.' Scientists have figured out how to photograph and study reflection nebulae because they're often where new stars are formed.Īlso in this picture, you can see the variable star Epsilon Crucis, so named because it is the fifth-brightest star in the Crux constellation it's the bright blue dot to the right-hand side of the image. 'In images of reflection nebulae taken with visible light, clouds of dust reflect the light of nearby stars,' NASA explained. While it can't be seen directly in visible light, NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) was able to capture this photograph of the reflection nebula IRAS 12116-6001 using infrared wavelengths.

Reflection nebula detection