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Hubble Catches Some Cosmic Fireworks

Posted by michael on from the bombs-bursting-in-air dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "On this Fourth of July, it's usual -- at least in the U.S. -- to watch fireworks. But I want to invite you to see very special ones, celestial fireworks discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomy Magazine has the story. "In a newly released image, the Hubble Space Telescope peers into a neighboring galaxy to capture a gorgeous view of a supernova remnant called LMC N 49. Also known as DEM L 190, the nebula lies within the Large Magellanic Cloud approximately 160,000 light-years away." Read this summary for more details and a nice illustration from the Hubble Heritage Team. You can find additional tons of information at this Hubble Heritage Project page."

2 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The picture have been forged. by dpp · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I don't want to look at cute picture. I want to see the real one, in false color if the picture show something not in the visible spectrum with a scale saying what's the meaning of each color.

    No, the picture hasn't been "forged".

    You're correct that the image was constructed from specific wavelengths with certain colours applied. Try going directly to the Hubble Heritage pages for this image. If you read the caption for the image you'll see:

    The Hubble Heritage image of N 49 is a color representation of data taken in July 2000, with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Color filters were used to sample light emitted by sulfur ([S II]), oxygen ([O III]), and hydrogen (H-alpha). The color image has been superimposed on a black-and-white image of stars in the same field also taken with Hubble.

    The fast facts will tell you the exact filters used:

    F502N ([O III]), F656N (Ha), F673N ([S II]), F814W (I), F547M (Strömgren y)

    The numbers tell you the wavelengths in nanometres. They have possibly assigned red, green, and blue in the same wavelength order, in which case red=sulphur, green=H-alpha, and blue=oxygen.

    If you really don't want to look at "cute pictures", don't look at the public outreach images. Take a closer look the original images.

    Hope this helps.

    --
    This post is strictly my own opinion and not necessarily that of my employer.
  2. For those looking for wall paper or a poster by 4/3PI*R^3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    click HERE for various resolutions of this image.