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NASA Finds Over 2,000 Young Star Candidates In North American Nebula

Posted by timothy on from the we're-gonna-need-a-bigger-casting-couch dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A NASA team has identified about 2,100 young star candidates in a region called the North American Nebula. The nebula is named after its resemblance to the North American continent in visible light. There were only about 200 young stars known before. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has taken images of the new stars at all stages of development, from dusty little tots to young adults."

34 comments

  1. Damn... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1, Funny

    Spitzer? Really? You go into politics, get caught hitting some high priced nooky, and you get a fucking space telescope? And if it was named for some other Spitzer, well that person should be really pissed at the aforementioned asshat...

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    1. Re:Damn... by jouassou · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's named after Lyman Spitzer, who among other things advocated the construction of "extraterrestrial observatories" and described how something like this could be realized with the technology available in 1946.

    2. Re:Damn... by mrsquid0 · · Score: 1

      So far NASA has resisted naming satellite or observatories after politicians. Even the James Webb Space Telescope is named after an administrator, not a politician. I sometimes wonder when someone is going to make a serious proposal to name something in space after Reagan.

      --
      Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
    3. Re:Damn... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      Well, it's probably best that he did not live to see his last name associated with $1000 per hour call girls. Not that there's anything wrong with them per say, it's just that if the name is going to get an association it might have been nice if, you know, a bit of it spilled his way at least...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    4. Re:Damn... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      I sometimes wonder when someone is going to make a serious proposal to name something in space after Reagan.

      They may be saving it for a new NEO, something along the lines of the RR Impactor...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    5. Re:Damn... by tyrione · · Score: 1

      Spitzer? Really? You go into politics, get caught hitting some high priced nooky, and you get a fucking space telescope? And if it was named for some other Spitzer, well that person should be really pissed at the aforementioned asshat...

      How about you research before you verbally prematurely ejaculate all over the screen?

    6. Re:Damn... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      What the fuck (and I mean that literally) is a call girl going to do to be worth $1000/hour? No, seriously. I'd be expecting barely-legal (like about 2 days over legal minimum in the relevant jurisdiction) bareback anal with about 6 of them simultaneously to justify prices like that.

      Oh, hang on - price inflation. 5 simultaneously. 4, if they're good looking. 3, if you're doing video too.

      OK, for a barely-legal, absolutely-anything-goes good-looking girl, who provides her own camera and someone to run the camera, and a couple of copies of the home movie ... OK, I can just about see that coming to $1000/hour. You could maybe substitute coprophagy (she eats mine) for the camera crew. I don't know the prices for that.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    7. Re:Damn... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      It's not as much about the quality of the merchandise as it is who is paying... obviously the people of the state of New York would want only the best for their governor... and I'm sure they picked up the tab one way or another.

      I wonder if these guys ever think about the implications of having to pay someone ridiculous sums of money for sex... I'm pretty sure I know what the ladies are thinking... "No, No, sweety, I always laugh when I'm horny... Oh, you're so BIG!".

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  2. Are they trying to beat American Idol? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who has found the most star candidates in North America?

  3. America not American by dsvilko · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's actually North America Nebula.

    1. Re:America not American by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      It's actually North America Nebula.

      Obviously, some North American believes: "All of this Nebula belongs to me!" Finders keepers.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  4. Young star candidates? Can we vote them off online by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do we get to vote the ones that don't make the cut to 'Young star' off?

    I mean "North America's next young star candidate." This writes itself.

  5. The North American Nebula? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a region called the North American Nebula

    Seriously now?

    1. Re:The North American Nebula? by mangu · · Score: 2

      a region called the North American Nebula

      Seriously now?

      Wikipedia is your friend. Spoiler: it's named for its shape.

    2. Re:The North American Nebula? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Spoiler? It's written right in the summary!

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    3. Re:The North American Nebula? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously not North American Nebula.

      Seriously North America Nebula.

  6. Re:Young star candidates? Can we vote them off onl by youn · · Score: 1

    Yep, the winner gets to go develop a planetary system with life, the losers's lives go into a black hole of oblivion :)

    According to the factoid I just made up... I have been told Sol is a past winner, with a group of leeches on the 3rd planet away... it's tired of this unwanted attention and might go nova on their ass, show them how pissed it get.. like any respectable star

    --
    Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that :p
  7. Turns out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That beings from the Euopa nebula come over to the North America nebula and buy their planet for a bunch of space beads.

  8. Tell that to NASA by mangu · · Score: 2

    "New View of Family Life in the North American Nebula"

    1. Re:Tell that to NASA by dsvilko · · Score: 1

      Seems the American astronomers still haven't got over the demotion of Pluto and are desperately trying to compensate :)

  9. Link to source by mangu · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why print news about NASA missions as reported by somebody else?

    Pretty picture here

    1. Re:Link to source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's the full, original release: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/news/1249-ssc2011-03-New-View-of-Family-Life-in-the-North-American-Nebula

    2. Re:Link to source by Solandri · · Score: 2

      Pic in visible light so you can see why it's called the North America Nebula.

  10. This is BS!!! by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    Just when NIH is getting the largest cut in history, $2B, NASA has money to finance 2000 young sta.... oh, wait.

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    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    1. Re:This is BS!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How lame, someone who has a "funny=-6" in the sig trying to make a joke.

  11. First round auditions start next week by mmj638 · · Score: 1

    ... then they'll be narrowed down to just 100 star candidates.

  12. cancelling my hawaii trip by amn108 · · Score: 1

    not a astornomy hater by any stretch, but this sure changed my weekend plans! :-)

  13. resembling what? by arisvega · · Score: 1

    This is one of the stuff that least resembles the stuff it's named after and supposed to be resembling.

    The Horse Head nebula looks so much more like a horse head; like a cute little horse chess piece.

    Maybe an often seen product of sarcasm, given to illustrate how much it actually does not resemble the anticipated properties? Like, f.i. "The Sky Mountain" in Denmark, or "The Pacific Ocean"?

    --
    The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
    1. Re:resembling what? by mangu · · Score: 1

      The images in TFA are in infrared, so they not resemble North America at all, in visible light, depending on how the picture was taken, there can be a very good resemblance.

      As for the horse head nebula, it looks more like a dog head, IMHO

    2. Re:resembling what? by Ogive17 · · Score: 1

      Looking at the 4 picture composite in the linked article, the two pictures on top easily resemble the N. American continent. Towards the bottom left is 'Mexico' (pinkish white), that seems like a good reference point for you to see the rest.

      --
      "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
    3. Re:resembling what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Easily" is kind of pushing it, but ok.

    4. Re:resembling what? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      how much it actually does not resemble the anticipated properties? Like, f.i. [SNIP] "The Pacific Ocean"?

      The Pacific Ocean was named by people who had just passed through the Straight of Magellan.

      It (the Pacific) was (by comparison) "pacific", i.e. "peaceful".

      Then again, from what I've heard from people who've sailed there, just about ANYTHING is "pacific" compared to sailing through the Straights of Magellan.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  14. This is very cool.. by BlindRobin · · Score: 1

    Which one is Beiber? (ducks)