Panoramic Universe Pictures

A Planetary Ring and 64 Moons Around Planet Jupiter

Ralucz — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:22:24 +0000

Biggest Planet and Biggest Moon in the Solar System

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the biggest planet of the Solar System, its mass being more than twice as big as all the other planets combined. Along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the four giant planets are known as the Jovial.

Planet Jupiter has mostly in its component hydrogen and helium, but it might also have a rocky core of heavy elements. Due to the high speed of its rotation, Jupiter has the shape of an oblate spheroid, having both poles closer to the core than the equator. The outer atmosphere of Jupiter is divided into separated latitude layers, which cause turbulence and storms when they interact. The most significant result of the layers interaction is a giant storm still in process, discovered in the 17th century . This storm is known by the name of the Great Red Spot.

Jupiter is surrounded by a slightly detectable planetary ring and a strong magnetosphere. What makes this planet interesting is not only its size, but also the fact that Jupiter has 64 moons. Four of the moons are very famous: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, also called the Galilean moons, after their discoverer Galileo Galilei. Ganymede is the biggest natural satellite in the Solar System, being bigger than the planet Mercury.

Along with the Sun, the Moon and planet Venus, Jupiter is the fourth largest object seen by the naked eye. The gravitational influence of planet Jupiter played a very important role in the shaping process of the solar System. Thereby, the majority of the planets orbit closer to Jupiter’s orbital plane than to the Sun’s equatorial plane. Mercury is the only planet that makes an exception, being closer to the Sun. Also, it’s high gravitational level might have caused the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt and the Late Heavy Bombardment of the inner Solar System’s history.

Distance from Earth: 0.0000621 light years, about 32 light minutes

Click below for full resolution picture of Planet Jupiter

Trail of Stars Between Elephant’s Trunk and Bubble Nebula

Ralucz — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:26:42 +0000

Elephant’s Trunk, Cradle of Newborn Stars

The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula is a mixture of interstellar gas and dust, in the ionized gas region of IC 1396 star cluster.

Cepheus Constellation is situated in the northern hemisphere and contains various star clusters, glowing nebulae and dark dust clouds. All of them can be followed in detail in this the photo below. In the left we can see IC 1396, a big emission nebula that contains a dark, twisting, spiral shaped region known as the Elephant’s Trunk. In the top middle we can see NGC 7380, a bright nebula with a fix star cluster and in the right part of the picture we can spot the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) and star cluster Messier 52 (M52).

The name of Elephant’s Trunk nebula diverts from it’s aspect at visible light wavelengths: a dark spot with a winding bright frame. The bright surface is actually a dense cloud illuminated and ionized by a very big and bright star situated in the west area. Only the dense globules escape from the ionization process that affects the entire IC 1396 region, due to their ability to protect themselves from the massive star’s rough ultraviolet rays .

After discovering in 2003 a series of young stars (less than 100,000 years), the scientists consider the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula as a possible site of star formation. Two of these new stars are located in the head of the globule, in a round cavity emptied by the star’s winds.

The Elephant’s Trunk nebula has a very high compression level. This is due to the presence of the massive star that ionizes and compresses the frame of the cloud, combined with the young stars whose winds shift the gas from the center to the edges. The high pressure level caused the current generation of protostars.

Distance from Earth: ~ 2500 light years

Click below for full resolution picture of Cepheus Constellation

Could There Be Life On Messier 13?

Ralucz — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:03:56 +0000

The Great Globular Star Cluster in Hercules

Messier 13 ( M13, NGC 6205) is a globular cluster of approximately 300,000 stars in the Hercules Constellation. It is also recalled as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules or the Hercules Globular Cluster.

Having a magnitude of 5.8 and a diameter of about 23 arc minutes, Messier 13 can be easily seen with small telescopes and even with the naked eye when the sky is very clear. The brightest star of the globular cluster is the variable star V11, that has an apparent magnitude of 11.95. Close to Messier 13 is NGC 6207, a twice as big edge-on galaxy. Midway between them lies IC 4617, a small galaxy situated north-northeast of the globular cluster’s center.

In 1974 Messier 13 was the subject of a research. Scientists believed that due to a very high number of stars, the Hercules Globular Cluster could have an environment that sustains intelligent life forms. The Arecibo message was sent towards the globular cluster in order to establish communication with these hypothetical life forms. This experiment was meant to demonstrate more the evolution of technology than to establish communication with other life forms, because at the time of the message’s arrival M13 would have changed it’s location. Could there be life on Messier 13? Still remains an open question.

Distance from Earth: ~ 25000 light years.

Click below for full resolution picture of M13′s Nucleus

Pink Waves Of The Lagoon Nebula

Ralucz — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:16:22 +0000

Messier 8 | A nebula Within A Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula (also known as Messier 8, M8 or NGC 6523) is a very large interstellar cloud in the Sagittarius Constellation . It is considered to be an emission nebula, emitting light of various colors.

The Lagoon Nebula’s color is pink in long time-exposed photos, although it appears grey looked directly through binoculars or a telescope. This is because human vision has a poor level of color sensitivity when the amount of light is low. The nebula has in it’s structure Bok globules, some dark and collapsing clouds of protostellar material. It contains also a tornado shaped channel structure, made by a hot O-type star that shapes the channel this way because it heats and ionizes the nebula’s gas surface by spreading ultraviolet light.

The center of the Lagoon Nebula is called Hourglass Nebula and within it it has been discovered an active growth process of star formation. Although it has the same name, it should not be confused with the Hourglass Nebula in the Musca Constellation .

Distance from Earth: ~ 5000 light years.

Click below for full resolution picture of Lagoon Nebula

Hidden Secrets in The Galactic Center of The Milky Way

Sophie — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:03:00 +0000

A Supermassive Black Hole Disguised by Sagittarius A

The Galactic Center is the rotational center of our home galaxy. It is located in the direction of the Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, and Scorpius Constellations where the Milky Way shines the most. It has been theorized that the Galactic Center is also home for a supermassive black hole.

Because interstellar dust conceal the Galactic Center, studies at visible, ultraviolet or soft X-ray wavelengths are impossible to conduct. However, observations at gamma ray, hard X-ray, infrared, sub-millimetre and radio wavelengths provide a substantial amount of information. The existence of the supermassive black hole has been confirmed using a VLT (Very Large Telescope) facility. Also accretion of gas onto a black hole would release enough energy to power up the intense compact radio source (Sagittarius A*), which is part of a larger astronomical radio source (Sagittarius A), and is located at the same location as the supermassive black hole.

Scientists were surprised to find out that the Galactic Center contains not only old red main-sequence stars, but also high amounts of massive stars. The birth of those stars was triggered a few millions years ago. This creates a “youth paradox” because the black hole tidal forces would prevent such a star formation event to take place. One explanation for this enigma is that the stars migrated near the Galactic Center after they formed in a remote location like a star cluster or a massive gas cloud near the black hole.

The Galactic Center is a quiet place for the next 200 million years when a star birth event will commence. Many stars will rush to supernovae states at higher rates (100x) than the current rate. The starburst may also be accompanied by the formation of galactic jets as matter falls into the central black hole. The Galactic Center of the Milky Way undergoes a starburst of this sort every 500 million years.

Distance from Earth: ~ 27000 light years.