Beauty in the Eye of Hubble
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
A dying star, IC 4406, dubbed the "Retina Nebula" is revealed in this month's Hubble Heritage image.
Like many other so-called planetary nebulae, IC 4406 exhibits a high degree of symmetry; the left and right halves of the Hubble image are nearly mirror images of the other. If we could fly around IC4406 in a starship, we would see that the gas and dust form a vast donut of material streaming outward from the dying star. From Earth, we are viewing the donut from the side. This side view allows us to see the intricate tendrils of dust that have been compared to the eye's retina. In other planetary nebulae, like the Ring Nebula (NGC 6720), we view the donut from the top.
The donut of material confines the intense radiation coming from the remnant of the dying star. Gas on the inside of the donut is ionized by light from the central star and glows. Light from oxygen atoms is rendered blue in this image; hydrogen is shown as green, and nitrogen as red. The range of color in the final image shows the differences in concentration of these three gases in the nebula.
Unseen in the Hubble image is a larger zone of neutral gas that is not emitting visible light, but which can be seen by radio telescopes.
One of the most interesting features of IC 4406 is the irregular lattice of dark lanes that criss-cross the center of the nebula. These lanes are about 160 astronomical units wide (1 astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and Sun). They are located right at the boundary between the hot glowing gas that produces the visual light imaged here and the neutral gas seen with radio telescopes. We see the lanes in silhouette because they have a density of dust and gas that is a thousand times higher than the rest of the nebula. The dust lanes are like a rather open mesh veil that has been wrapped around the bright donut.
The fate of these dense knots of material is unknown. Will they survive the nebula's expansion and become dark denizens of the space between the stars or simply dissipate?
This image is a composite of data taken by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in June 2001 by Bob O'Dell (Vanderbilt University) and collaborators and in January 2002 by The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI). Filters used to create this color image show oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen gas glowing in this object.
Great picture, now can we see it in true colors
by
dolphin558
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· Score: 1
Most of the released Hubble photographs have been given artificial colors. This one is no exception. It is still a beauty. http://www.geocities.com/lilmacumd/escape.html
Re:Great picture, now can we see it in true colors
by
ObviousGuy
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· Score: 1
Black and white wouldn't be quite as stunning, IMO.
Mmm.. Galactic donut..
-- I have been pwned because my/. password was too easy to guess.
Re:Great picture, now can we see it in true colors
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Informative
Looking for more info on how Hubble images are colorized? Check this info page out.
From what I understand they are as black and white as the stars we normally see. The Stellar Eggs, for example are awesome in appearance but if you took away the false coloring you end up looking at a fuzzy muddle of greys.
-- I have been pwned because my/. password was too easy to guess.
Re:black and white?
by
CheshireCatCO
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· Score: 4, Informative
Oh, no. They really have colors. You get the images from the CCDs in black and white because you have to take one expose through each filter (which is then just a map of intensity at that waveband). But you then add the images to get color.
HST images (as well as other telescopes's outputs) tend to be false colored for two reasons:
1. Because stretching the color tables often brings out subtle details. You can see this is a true and stretched image of Jupiter, for example.
2. Many (most maybe even) HST images include wavelengths that we can't actually see, into the IR and UV. If you want to see those wavelengths, you'll have to false color.
I do sort of wish that they'd always include a little note in the captions stating that the color tables have been stretched or otherwise manipulated. But they seldom do. It's just a dream I have.
Artificial colors or not - just being able to see such an image is an affirmation of life. Thank god for technology!
-- ...we are from the government - we are here to help...
Capitain Kirk, a space pervert
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
That picture truly is beautiful. But so is not the inside and thoughts of the geek idol Capitain Kirk. Indeed, the opposite is true; here I shall tell you why.
Unknown, unfortunately, is the little known fact that Capitain Kirk, among his fellow boy-sex lovers also known as Capitain Jerk-off, is a porn-man. That's right, a porn man. How can I state such a thing? Well just look at how he, in each and every one of that SF TV-series, ScarTrack, walks around, softening, yes - mind you, softening every reasonably attractive woman in his path in his own very pornographic manner. This softening is of course the phenomenon that on the TV-screen gets all blurry around the object of the softening - indeed, very perverted. And, I can assure you, that when he is not engaged in such perverted activities, he is either laying naked in his own cabin, spreading his legs and softening his very own reproductive organs, or is having boy-sex with his perverse collegues Mr. Spank, and Dr. Boner McToy-Boy.
The article said it looked like a retina, so maybe
Detached floating space retina that looks like grandma's knee nebula
That's catchy!
-- I have been pwned because my/. password was too easy to guess.
Story titles
by
OgdEnigmaX
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Could we please refrain from plagiarizing titles? Admittedly this is not as bad as ripping article summaries, but still doesn't sit right.
Very neat picture in any case.
Slashdot Mirror
A dying star, IC 4406, dubbed the "Retina Nebula" is revealed in this month's Hubble Heritage image.
Like many other so-called planetary nebulae, IC 4406 exhibits a high degree of symmetry; the left and right halves of the Hubble image are nearly mirror images of the other. If we could fly around IC4406 in a starship, we would see that the gas and dust form a vast donut of material streaming outward from the dying star. From Earth, we are viewing the donut from the side. This side view allows us to see the intricate tendrils of dust that have been compared to the eye's retina. In other planetary nebulae, like the Ring Nebula (NGC 6720), we view the donut from the top.
The donut of material confines the intense radiation coming from the remnant of the dying star. Gas on the inside of the donut is ionized by light from the central star and glows. Light from oxygen atoms is rendered blue in this image; hydrogen is shown as green, and nitrogen as red. The range of color in the final image shows the differences in concentration of these three gases in the nebula.
Unseen in the Hubble image is a larger zone of neutral gas that is not emitting visible light, but which can be seen by radio telescopes.
One of the most interesting features of IC 4406 is the irregular lattice of dark lanes that criss-cross the center of the nebula. These lanes are about 160 astronomical units wide (1 astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and Sun). They are located right at the boundary between the hot glowing gas that produces the visual light imaged here and the neutral gas seen with radio telescopes. We see the lanes in silhouette because they have a density of dust and gas that is a thousand times higher than the rest of the nebula. The dust lanes are like a rather open mesh veil that has been wrapped around the bright donut.
The fate of these dense knots of material is unknown. Will they survive the nebula's expansion and become dark denizens of the space between the stars or simply dissipate?
This image is a composite of data taken by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in June 2001 by Bob O'Dell (Vanderbilt University) and collaborators and in January 2002 by The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI). Filters used to create this color image show oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen gas glowing in this object.
Most of the released Hubble photographs have been given artificial colors. This one is no exception. It is still a beauty. http://www.geocities.com/lilmacumd/escape.html
Nebula are black n white? I know they're duller than these pictures but are you sure about black/white?
Artificial colors or not - just being able to see such an image is an affirmation of life. Thank god for technology!
...we are from the government - we are here to help...
That picture truly is beautiful. But so is not the inside and thoughts of the geek idol Capitain Kirk. Indeed, the opposite is true; here I shall tell you why.
Unknown, unfortunately, is the little known fact that Capitain Kirk, among his fellow boy-sex lovers also known as Capitain Jerk-off, is a porn-man. That's right, a porn man. How can I state such a thing? Well just look at how he, in each and every one of that SF TV-series, ScarTrack, walks around, softening, yes - mind you, softening every reasonably attractive woman in his path in his own very pornographic manner. This softening is of course the phenomenon that on the TV-screen gets all blurry around the object of the softening - indeed, very perverted. And, I can assure you, that when he is not engaged in such perverted activities, he is either laying naked in his own cabin, spreading his legs and softening his very own reproductive organs, or is having boy-sex with his perverse collegues Mr. Spank, and Dr. Boner McToy-Boy.
i find the name quite booring...
IC 4406? naHH... don't like it..
I think it looks like a human knee...
.......
maybe grandmas knee..
...
lets call it that:
grandmas knee nebula
Warning: This sig contains a small bug. ==> *
Could we please refrain from plagiarizing titles? Admittedly this is not as bad as ripping article summaries, but still doesn't sit right. Very neat picture in any case.
It is really a negative of a used condum.
Table-ized A.I.