26 years into its mission, Hubble snaps beautiful photo of the Bubble Nebula

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - 26 years into its mission, Hubble snaps beautiful photo of the Bubble Nebula (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:44:27 AM EDT

Link to ginormous picture

Simulated fly by

The Bubble Nebula is seven light-years across—about one-and-a-half times the distance from our sun to its nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri, and resides 7,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.

The seething star forming this nebula is 45 times more massive than our sun. Gas on the star gets so hot that it escapes away into space as a “stellar wind” moving at over four million miles per hour. This outflow sweeps up the cold, interstellar gas in front of it, forming the outer edge of the bubble much like a snowplow piles up snow in front of it as it moves forward.

As the surface of the bubble's shell expands outward, it slams into dense regions of cold gas on one side of the bubble. This asymmetry makes the star appear dramatically off-center from the bubble, with its location in the 10 o’clock position in the Hubble view.

Dense pillars of cool hydrogen gas laced with dust appear at the upper left of the picture, and more “fingers” can be seen nearly face-on, behind the translucent bubble.

The gases heated to varying temperatures emit different colors: oxygen is hot enough to emit blue light in the bubble near the star, while the cooler pillars are yellow from the combined light of hydrogen and nitrogen. The pillars are similar to the iconic columns in the “Pillars of Creation” Eagle Nebula. As seen with the structures in the Eagle Nebula, the Bubble Nebula pillars are being illuminated by the strong ultraviolet radiation from the brilliant star inside the bubble.

The Bubble Nebula was discovered in 1787 by William Herschel, a prominent British astronomer. It is being formed by an O star, BD +60º2522, an extremely bright, massive, and short-lived star that has lost most of its outer hydrogen and is now fusing helium into heavier elements. The star is about four million years old, and in 10 million to 20 million years, it will likely detonate as a supernova.

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Posted: 4/23/2016 11:49:00 AM EDT

[#1]

Amazing

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:49:59 AM EDT

[#2]

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Amazing

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This. It's one of the few things that was actually worth what they paid for it.

ETA: I'm referring to Hubble.

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:50:26 AM EDT

[#3]

Cool!

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:55:32 AM EDT

[#4]

Awesome!

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:55:33 AM EDT

[#5]

The gases heated to varying temperatures emit different colors: oxygen is hot enough to emit blue light in the bubble near the star ...

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There's that much oxygen out there?

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:55:48 AM EDT

[#6]

I am glad the taxpayers got their money's worth.

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:55:57 AM EDT

[#7]

I wonder what it looks like in natural colour.

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:57:02 AM EDT

[#8]

I believe that the bubble nebula was featured in yesterday's Arfcom approved astronomy thread of the day.

Space is awesome

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:57:37 AM EDT

[#9]

7,100 light years away.

And there are things behind it.

Amazing.

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:57:55 AM EDT

[#10]

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I wonder what it looks like in natural colour.

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Me too. I didn't find out till a few years ago that they add color to the pictures we see of space.

Posted: 4/23/2016 11:58:53 AM EDT

[#11]

It's crazy to think that it was first discovered 229years ago.

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:13:19 PM EDT

[#12]

Space is big and stuff.

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:28:36 PM EDT

[#13]

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Quoted:
There's that much oxygen out there?

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The gases heated to varying temperatures emit different colors: oxygen is hot enough to emit blue light in the bubble near the star ...

There's that much oxygen out there?

Yup.

And that's not all.

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:34:16 PM EDT

[#14]

Hubble took a deep space shot that used a week of precious time as I recall. it was a region of space that black to all other observatories on Earth and after a week of light gathering, to everyone's astonishment, the region was full of galaxies. the cosmos is beyond human intuition and capability to comprehend the distances and forces in play. distance is measured in time. the time it takes light to travel, which is 300,000 km per second, or 186,000 miles per second. the galaxies in the deep field shot are thought to be 8-10 BILLION light years away. think about the distance.

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:39:25 PM EDT

[#15]

That's a cool photo. I think I may have found a new wallpaper to replace my current wallpaper, The Pillars of Creation.

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:40:51 PM EDT

[#16]

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Quoted:

There's that much oxygen out there?

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The gases heated to varying temperatures emit different colors: oxygen is hot enough to emit blue light in the bubble near the star ...

There's that much oxygen out there?

Yup. Not quite enough to breathe though.

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:42:08 PM EDT

[#17]

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7,100 light years away.

And there are things behind it.

Amazing.

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Why wouldn't there be?

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:47:22 PM EDT

[#18]

huh that's neat. I wonder why God needed to make that

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:51:55 PM EDT

[#19]

Cool,makes the human race look like a speck of sand on a beach

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:52:32 PM EDT

[#20]

I wonder what that would look like without the background ?

Is there a way - or do we know what is in the bubble, and what is in front, and behind it?

Neat stuff - space is kinda mind boggling tho. I cannot think that big, or that far.

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:53:49 PM EDT

[#21]

Space is awesome.

Posted: 4/23/2016 12:56:08 PM EDT

[#22]

I bet that there is a giant skull in there.

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:08:04 PM EDT

[#23]

The really amazing thing is it just happened.

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:08:46 PM EDT

[#24]

Just curious why it looks so fake looking?

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:11:21 PM EDT

[#25]

This nebula was discovered 4 years before the 2nd Amendment was ratified.

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:13:50 PM EDT

[#26]

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Just curious why it looks so fake looking?

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Color is a bit faked.

ETA: More of a blend.

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:14:57 PM EDT

[#27]

... It's beautiful, I'm humbled

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:16:36 PM EDT

[#28]

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Quoted:

Just curious why it looks so fake looking?

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Just remember, 99% of the things in the universe are things you've never laid eyes on. I'm sure a good portion of the things that exist out there would scare the shit out of you

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:18:05 PM EDT

[#29]

Like a big ol' cosmic fart.

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:20:44 PM EDT

[#30]

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Quoted:

Just curious why it looks so fake looking?

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I'm going to take a stab at answering because I thought the same thing at first. For me I realized that it looks a lot like what sci fi artists have been drawing or painting for hundreds of years. The fact that in real life it looks so similar to their work gives it, at least for me, the feeling of unreality, like the cover of a sci fi book or the opening of a sci fi movie.

That makes it doubly awesome for me, because not only is it real, but so many sci fi authors and artists have gotten so close.

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:20:46 PM EDT

[#31]

That's yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge!

I agree, one of the things that was worth paying for.

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:28:15 PM EDT

[#32]

Thanks for posting.

Fun FSU link

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:35:02 PM EDT

[#33]

Still a lot to learn out there

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:50:08 PM EDT

[#34]

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The really amazing thing is it just happened.

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In the big picture, yes.

For us, no.

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:52:40 PM EDT

[#35]

Quote History

Quoted:
Just curious why it looks so fake looking?

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I may be wrong but the coloration is added based on best guesses of what things are composed of. The actual photos are B&W, they are touched up and colorized in a process similar to what is applied to old movies.

Posted: 4/23/2016 1:53:51 PM EDT

[#36]

What I find most incredible is Hubble is 26 years old.

Jesus, where does the time go?

Posted: 4/23/2016 2:02:18 PM EDT

[#37]

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... It's beautiful, I'm humbled

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This.

Posted: 4/23/2016 2:06:12 PM EDT

[#38]

Wow look. I think I can see ur anus.

Sorry. That is very cool. Wish I understood space better

Posted: 4/23/2016 2:20:13 PM EDT

[#39]

Quote History

Quoted:
Hubble took a deep space shot that used a week of precious time as I recall. it was a region of space that black to all other observatories on Earth and after a week of light gathering, to everyone's astonishment, the region was full of galaxies. the cosmos is beyond human intuition and capability to comprehend the distances and forces in play. distance is measured in time. the time it takes light to travel, which is 300,000 km per second, or 186,000 miles per second. the galaxies in the deep field shot are thought to be 8-10 BILLION light years away. think about the distance.

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Ummm my calculator gave me this. 4.69255680E+22 or this 4,692,556,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, whatever number that is.

Posted: 4/23/2016 2:30:42 PM EDT

[#40]

Quote History

Quoted:

huh that's neat. I wonder why God needed to make that

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To both teach and entertain us

And others. Or himself.

Posted: 4/23/2016 2:32:49 PM EDT

[#41]

Daily reminder that we are insignificant and meaningless in the grand scheme of things. A nice dose of depression for lunch.

Posted: 4/23/2016 2:33:10 PM EDT

[#42]

Neat stuff.

Posted: 4/23/2016 2:34:19 PM EDT

[#43]

Quote History

Quoted:
What I find most incredible is Hubble is 26 years old.

Jesus, where does the time go?

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Yeah but it's basically been given a frame up restoration several times.. for the car analogy

Posted: 4/23/2016 2:43:19 PM EDT

[#44]

Quote History

Quoted:
... It's beautiful, I'm humbled Hubbled

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Posted: 4/23/2016 3:01:31 PM EDT

[#45]

Quote History

Quoted:

Neat stuff - space is kinda mind boggling tho. I cannot think that big, or that far.

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That's how I am, just can't wrap my head around the idea of it.

Posted: 4/23/2016 3:06:40 PM EDT

[#46]

Incredible.

Posted: 4/23/2016 3:10:04 PM EDT

[#47]

Quote History

Quoted:

I'm going to take a stab at answering because I thought the same thing at first. For me I realized that it looks a lot like what sci fi artists have been drawing or painting for hundreds of years. The fact that in real life it looks so similar to their work gives it, at least for me, the feeling of unreality, like the cover of a sci fi book or the opening of a sci fi movie.

That makes it doubly awesome for me, because not only is it real, but so many sci fi authors and artists have gotten so close.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
Just curious why it looks so fake looking?

I'm going to take a stab at answering because I thought the same thing at first. For me I realized that it looks a lot like what sci fi artists have been drawing or painting for hundreds of years. The fact that in real life it looks so similar to their work gives it, at least for me, the feeling of unreality, like the cover of a sci fi book or the opening of a sci fi movie.

That makes it doubly awesome for me, because not only is it real, but so many sci fi authors and artists have gotten so close.

That is a very interesting observation that I hadn't thought of but once you said it made perfect sense.