MessageToEagle.com - The Trifid Nebula (M20) is home to thousands of massive newborn stars and one of the most prominent
nebulae in the night sky. There is so much happening in this cosmic object and a well-known open cluster.
This is a rare combination of three nebulae types that reveal the fury of freshly formed stars and point to more star
birth in the future.
This massive star factory is so named for the dark dust bands that trisect its glowing heart, and is a rare combination of
three nebula types, revealing the fury of freshly formed stars and presaging more star birth.
Dust lanes radiating from the center appear to divide the nebula into three parts.
This large luminous cloud of ionized hydrogen is located at distance of ˜1.7 kpc in the Sagittarius (the Archer)
spiral arm and about 8 light-years away from the nebula's central star.
The Trifid is approximately 9,000 light-years from Earth .
The Trifid nebula (M20) is a well-known prominent, optical HII region of starbirth, which is strong in UV
radiation and very hot (around ~10,000K). It shows many similarities to M42 but the Trifid is thought to be significantly
younger than the Orion Nebula (~ 105 yr rather than ~ 106 yr).
It presents a compelling portrait of the early stages of a star's life, from gestation to first light.
Click on image to enlarge
The Trifid Nebula, aka M20, is easy to find with a small telescope and a well-known stop in the nebula rich
constellation Sagittarius. But where visible light pictures show the nebula divided into three parts by dark, obscuring
dust lanes, this penetrating infrared image reveals filaments of luminous gas and newborn stars.
This spectacular false-color view is courtesy of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers have used the Spitzer
infrared image data to count newborn and embryonic stars that otherwise lie hidden in the natal dust and glowing
clouds of this intriguing stellar nursery. Image credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, J. Rho (SSC/Caltech)
The heat and "winds" of newly ignited, volatile stars stir the Trifid's gas and dust-filled cauldron; in time, the dark
tendrils of matter strewn throughout the area will themselves collapse and form new stars.
Dust pillars are like interstellar mountains. Visible in the above picture is the end of a huge gas and dust pillar
in the Trifid Nebula, punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual jet pointing to the left.
Trifid Pillars & Jets. Credit: J. Hester (Arizona St. U) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA
The pink dots are newly formed low-mass stars.
A star near the small pillar's end is slowly being stripped of its accreting gas by radiation from a tremendously
brighter and powerful star situated off the above picture to the upper right.
The jet extends nearly a light-year and would not be visible without external illumination. As gas and dust
evaporate from the pillars, the hidden stellar source of this jet will likely be uncovered, possibly over the next 20,000 years.
Closeup of Jet in Trifid Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)
A prominent jet is being lit up by radiation from the massive, luminous star that powers the Trifid Nebula.
The jet and a long finger-like object, a "stalk" with a possible young stellar object are emerging from the wall of a
cloud, toward the star that powers the Trifid Nebula. This stalk is a prominent example of the evaporating gaseous globules,
or "EGGs".
Hubble astronomers are believe that the jet as the last gasp from a star that was cut off from its supply lines 100,000 years ago.
The French astronomer Charles Messier first observed the Trifid Nebula in June 1764, recording the hazy, glowing object
as entry number 20 in his renowned catalogue.
Observations made about 60 years later by John Herschel of the dust lanes that appear to divide the cosmic cloud into
three lobes inspired the English astronomer to coin the name "Trifid".
The massive star factory (image above) known as the Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius, the Archer, was captured in all its glory with the
Wide-Field Imager camera attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in northern Chile.
Named for the dark dust bands that trisect its glowing heart, the Trifid Nebula is a rare combination of three nebulae
types that reveal the fury of freshly formed stars and point to more star birth in the future. Credit: ESO/S. Guisard
(www.eso.org/~sguisard) and A. Fujii. Music by John Dyson from the CD darklight
The Trifid Nebula can be observed through a small telescope and is a popular deep sky object among amateur astronomers.
Spectacular Sombrero Galaxy
Captured By Chandra/Hubble/Spitzer
It resembles a shining UFO or a wide-brimmed hat, but this isn't what it looks like.
One of most famous spiral galaxies (Messier 104) is also widely known as the "Sombrero" (the Mexican hat) because of its particular shape.
The galaxy's impressive, unusually large and extended central bulge and its lane of dark interstellar dust give the galaxy its unusual resemblance.
Invader From Another Galaxy
This alien intruder from another galaxy is in many ways different from other exoplanets observed by astronomers.
Located about 2000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation
of Fornax (the Furnace), the Jupiter-like planet orbits a dying star of extragalactic origin and risks to be engulfed by it.
Alien Species Living In The Inner Milky Way Could Be In Danger
Few people doubt there is intelligent alien life in the Milky Way galaxy, but where can we expect to find it?
Astronomers think that while the inner sector of the MIlky Way Galaxy may be the most likely to support habitable worlds.
Unfortunately some of these places are also most dangerous to all life-forms.
Black Holes With No 'Table Manners' Eat Two Courses At Once!
It is still unknown how the supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galaxy centres accrete gas and grow.
Researchers from the University of Leicester (UK) and Monash University in Australia have investigated how some black holes got so big so fast that they are billions of times heavier than the sun.
Mercury Surprises Scientists
On March 17, MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) completed its one-year primary mission, orbiting Mercury, capturing nearly 100,000 images, and recording data
that reveals new information about the planet's core, topography, and the mysterious radar bright material in the permanently shadowed areas near the poles.
Living Earth Simulator - Supercomputer Predicting The Future
In Douglas Adams book the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy we encounter a machine called Deep Thought. It is the most powerful computer ever built. Deep Thought is capable of answering questions
concerning life, the Universe, and simply everything. Now scientists are planning to create a similar machine. It is called the Living Earth Simulator (LES).
Cosmic Robbers: Black Hole Jets May Cause
Galaxy NGC 3801 To Die And Lose Its Stars
Armchair explorers of the cosmos can now have at their fingertips the nearly 2,000 distant planetary systems discovered by NASA's Kepler Mission.
Now available for free from the iTunes App Store, Kepler Explorer was developed through the OpenLab initiative at UC Santa Cruz,
which brought together faculty and students in astrophysics, art, and technology for a summer institute last year.
A Merger Of Galaxy Clusters About 5.2 Billion Light Years From Earth
A violent collision between two galaxy clusters in which so-called normal matter has been wrenched apart from dark matter through a
violent collision between two galaxy clusters.
Astronomers have observed this cosmic event using a combination of powerful observatories in space and on the ground.
Galaxy With A Voracious Appetite
Observations by the two of the European Space Agency's space observatories have provided a multi-wavelength view of
the mysterious galaxy Centaurus A.
The new images, from the Herschel Space Observatory and the XMM-Newton x-ray satellite, are revealing further hints about
its cannibalistic past and energetic processes going on in its core.
New Kepler Explorer:
View The 1,790 Distant Planetary Systems - For Free!
Armchair explorers of the cosmos can now have at their fingertips the nearly 2,000 distant planetary systems discovered by NASA's Kepler Mission.
Now available for free from the iTunes App Store, Kepler Explorer was developed through the OpenLab initiative at UC Santa Cruz,
which brought together faculty and students in astrophysics, art, and technology for a summer institute last year.
Dwarf Irregular Galaxy
That Forces Scientists To Re-Evaluate Old Theory
The results led the scientists to the conclusion that this enigmatic blue compact dwarf might force astronomers
to review current galaxy formation models and much of what is known about galaxy formation and evolution might need substantial revision.
The dwarf galaxy I Zw 18 is, one of the poorest in heavy elements, located only 59 million light years away.
It's among those that have strong star forming activity.
Though the universe is filled with billions upon billions of stars, the discovery of a single variable star in 1923 altered the
course of modern astronomy. And, at least one famous astronomer of the time lamented that the discovery had shattered his world view.
Bright Star In The Constellation Lyra Is Cooler Than The Human Body
The coldest class of stars have temperatures as cool as the human body.
Astronomers hunted these dark orbs, termed Y dwarfs, for more than a decade without success.
When viewed with a visible-light telescope, they are nearly impossible to see.
Thermonuclear Burning In A Neutron Star Detected For The First Time!
It's a very important discovery!
For the first time, an international team of scientists have detected all phases of thermonuclear burning in a
neutron star, located close to the center of the galaxy in the globular cluster Terzan 5.
MessageToEagle.com - The Trifid Nebula (M20) is home to thousands of massive newborn stars and one of the most prominent
nebulae in the night sky. There is so much happening in this cosmic object and a well-known open cluster.
It resembles a shining UFO or a wide-brimmed hat, but this isn't what it looks like.
One of most famous spiral galaxies (Messier 104) is also widely known as the "Sombrero" (the Mexican hat) because of its particular shape.
The galaxy's impressive, unusually large and extended central bulge and its lane of dark interstellar dust give the galaxy its unusual resemblance.
This alien intruder from another galaxy is in many ways different from other exoplanets observed by astronomers.
Located about 2000 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation
of Fornax (the Furnace), the Jupiter-like planet orbits a dying star of extragalactic origin and risks to be engulfed by it.
Few people doubt there is intelligent alien life in the Milky Way galaxy, but where can we expect to find it?
Astronomers think that while the inner sector of the MIlky Way Galaxy may be the most likely to support habitable worlds.
Unfortunately some of these places are also most dangerous to all life-forms.
It is still unknown how the supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galaxy centres accrete gas and grow.
Researchers from the University of Leicester (UK) and Monash University in Australia have investigated how some black holes got so big so fast that they are billions of times heavier than the sun.
On March 17, MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) completed its one-year primary mission, orbiting Mercury, capturing nearly 100,000 images, and recording data
that reveals new information about the planet's core, topography, and the mysterious radar bright material in the permanently shadowed areas near the poles.
In Douglas Adams book the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy we encounter a machine called Deep Thought. It is the most powerful computer ever built. Deep Thought is capable of answering questions
concerning life, the Universe, and simply everything. Now scientists are planning to create a similar machine. It is called the Living Earth Simulator (LES).
Armchair explorers of the cosmos can now have at their fingertips the nearly 2,000 distant planetary systems discovered by NASA's Kepler Mission.
Now available for free from the iTunes App Store, Kepler Explorer was developed through the OpenLab initiative at UC Santa Cruz,
which brought together faculty and students in astrophysics, art, and technology for a summer institute last year.
A violent collision between two galaxy clusters in which so-called normal matter has been wrenched apart from dark matter through a
violent collision between two galaxy clusters.
Astronomers have observed this cosmic event using a combination of powerful observatories in space and on the ground.
Observations by the two of the European Space Agency's space observatories have provided a multi-wavelength view of
the mysterious galaxy Centaurus A.
The new images, from the Herschel Space Observatory and the XMM-Newton x-ray satellite, are revealing further hints about
its cannibalistic past and energetic processes going on in its core.
Armchair explorers of the cosmos can now have at their fingertips the nearly 2,000 distant planetary systems discovered by NASA's Kepler Mission.
Now available for free from the iTunes App Store, Kepler Explorer was developed through the OpenLab initiative at UC Santa Cruz,
which brought together faculty and students in astrophysics, art, and technology for a summer institute last year.
The results led the scientists to the conclusion that this enigmatic blue compact dwarf might force astronomers
to review current galaxy formation models and much of what is known about galaxy formation and evolution might need substantial revision.
The dwarf galaxy I Zw 18 is, one of the poorest in heavy elements, located only 59 million light years away.
It's among those that have strong star forming activity.
Though the universe is filled with billions upon billions of stars, the discovery of a single variable star in 1923 altered the
course of modern astronomy. And, at least one famous astronomer of the time lamented that the discovery had shattered his world view.
The coldest class of stars have temperatures as cool as the human body.
Astronomers hunted these dark orbs, termed Y dwarfs, for more than a decade without success.
When viewed with a visible-light telescope, they are nearly impossible to see.
It's a very important discovery!
For the first time, an international team of scientists have detected all phases of thermonuclear burning in a
neutron star, located close to the center of the galaxy in the globular cluster Terzan 5.