Explanation: Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, the star factory known as Messier 17 lies some 5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius. At that distance, this degree wide field of view spans almost 100 light-years, courtesy of the European Southern Observatory's new VLT Survey Telescope and OmegaCAM. The sharp, false color image includes both optical and infrared data, following faint details of the region's gas and dust clouds against a backdrop of central Milky Way stars. Stellar winds and energetic light from hot, massive stars formed from M17's stock of cosmic gas and dust have slowly carved away at the remaining interstellar material producing the cavernous appearance and undulating shapes. M17 is also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula.
We had this going before, but it kinda dropped off... but I thought I'd restart it...
by that I meant posting regular pics that are cool astronomy.
The constellation of Sagittarius will be due south at 1ipm this evening and it lies in the direction of the centre of the Milky Way galaxy which is 30,000 light years away.
The Dumbbell Nebula is a planetary nebula some 1,360 light years away from the Earth. A planetary nebula is an emission nebula consisting of an expanding glowing shell gas and lasts only a few tens of thousands of years - so rather short in the life cycle of stars. At the centre of the nebula is a white dwarf - actually its the largest known white dwarf]
hese four images of Neptune were taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope during the planet's 16-hour rotation. The snapshots were taken at roughly four-hour intervals, offering a full view of the blue-green planet. Today marks Neptune's first orbit around the Sun since it was discovered nearly 165 years ago. These images were taken to commemorate the event.
