The Eye of God Nebula

What Is the Helix Nebula?
The Helix Nebula is special in its own right, without false claims of miracles or NASA referring to it as the Eye of God or that it is a rare object. The Helix Nebula is one of the closest and largest planetary nebulas known. A planetary nebula consists of gas and dust expelled from a star at the end of its life. The Helix Nebula provides a glimpse into our own Sun's future, after it reaches the red giant phase and begins to release its gases. The star seen at the center of the Helix Nebula is the one responsible for the gaseous outflow. If this were the Sun, our planet would be well within the nebula. In fact, as the Sun bloats into the red giant phase, it will devour our Earth and all planets out to Mars. The Sun and the star in the Helix Nebula will eventually end their lives as white dwarfs.

As proof that the image of the Helix Nebula is not rare, compare it with the Ring Nebula. The Ring Nebula is a favorite target among backyard observers and can be found in the constellation Lyra and is also called M57.

The popularity of this image known as the Eye of God is so wide ranging that it is now one of the outer space photos used as art that appears in the apartment of the physics researchers Leonard and Sheldon in the TV show The Big Bang Theory.

The Eye of God is a real nebula, even if that is not its real name, and is an awesome image worth sharing with friends, even without a mystical story connected to it.

I love that pic, it is my favourite of all the amazing pics of the Universe.

March 19, 2010: Take an exhilarating ride through the Orion Nebula, a vast star-making factory 1,500 light-years away. Swoop through Orion's giant canyon of gas and dust. Fly past behemoth stars whose brilliant light illuminates and energizes the entire cloudy region. Zoom by dusty tadpole-shaped objects that are fledgling solar systems. This virtual space journey isn't the latest video game but one of several groundbreaking astronomy visualizations created by specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, the science operations center for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The cinematic space odysseys are part of the new Imax film "Hubble 3D," which opens today at select Imax theaters worldwide. The 43-minute movie chronicles the 20-year life of Hubble and includes highlights from the May 2009 servicing mission to the Earth-orbiting observatory, with footage taken by the astronauts. The giant-screen film showcases some of Hubble's breathtaking iconic pictures, such as the Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation," as well as stunning views taken by the newly installed Wide Field Camera 3.

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December 18, 2008: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught Jupiter's moon Ganymede playing a game of "peek-a-boo." In this crisp Hubble image, Ganymede is shown just before it ducks behind the giant planet. This color photo was made from three images taken on April 9, 2007, with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in red, green, and blue filters. The image shows Jupiter and Ganymede in close to natural colors.

To some it may look to some like a big space monster, but it is more big than monster. To others it may look like a grazing seahorse, but the dark object toward the image right is actually an inanimate pillar of smoky dust about 20 light years long. The curiously-shaped dust structure occurs in our neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud, in a star forming region very near the expansive Tarantula Nebula. The energetic nebula is creating a star cluster named NGC 2074, whose center is visible just off the top of the image in the direction of the neck of the seahorse. The above representative color image was taken last year by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in honor of Hubble's 100,000th trip around the Earth. As young stars in the cluster form, their light and winds will slowly erode the dust pillars away over the next million years.

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

An image of the grand design spiral galaxy M100 obtained with the second generation Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC-2), newly installed in the Hubble Space Telescope. Though the galaxy lies several tens of millions of light-years away, modified optics incorporated within the WFPC-2 allow Hubble to view M100 with a level of clarity and sensitivity previously possible only for the very few nearby galaxies that compose our "Local Group." Just as one does not learn about the diversity of mankind by conversing only with your next door neighbor, astronomers must study many galaxies in a host of different environments if they are to come to understand how our own galaxy, out star, and our earth came to be. By expanding the region of the universe that can be studied in such detail a thousand fold, the WFPC-2 will help the Hubble Space Telescope to fulfill this mission.

One of the greateset gains of the high resolution provided by Hubble is the Ability to resolve individual stars in other galaxies. The new camera not only allows astronomers to separate stars which would have been blurred together at the resolution available from the ground, but also allows astronomets to accurately measure the light form very faint stars. The quantitative study of compositions, ages, temperatures, and other properties of stars and gas in other galaxies will provide important clues about how galaxies form and evolve.

In addition, the WFPC-2 will allow the Hubble Space Telescope to be used to attack one of the most fundamental questions in science: the age and scale of the universe. Astronomers have many "yardsticks" for measuring the scale of the universe, but lack a good knowledge of how long these yardsticks really are. M100 is a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. By allowing astronomers to resolve and measure individual stars in the Virgo Cluster — in particular a special type of star called Cepheid variables, which have well known absolute brightnesses — HST observations are expected to provide a crucial measurement of this much needed scale. (Only Space Telescope can make these types of observations. Cepheids are too faint and the resolution too poor, as seen from ground-based telescope, to separate the images in such a crowded region of a distance galaxy.)

The picture is chevron-shaped because it is a mosaic of the three wide field cameras and the planetary camera which make up the WFPC-2. The three wide field detectors in the camera reveal individual stars and filamentary dust lanes in the outer arms of the majestic spiral galaxy. The instrument's planetary camera image (upper right) resolved complex structure in the core of the galaxy, which is the site of vigorous star formation.

The image was taken on December 31, 1993. The field of view is about two and a half arc minutes across. The image aws taken through red, green, and blue filters to create a true color picture. Blue corresponds to the light from yound and massive stars that have recently formed along the spiral arms. The pinkish blobs are huge blouds of glowing hydrogen gas. They indentify sites of new star formation.

Object Names: M100, NGC 4321

Image Type: Astronomical/Illustration

Credit: NASA, STScI

Is this a mud volcano on Mars? If so, could it be dredging up Martian microbes? This strange possibility has been suggested recently and seems to fit several recent observations of Mars. First of all, hills like this seem to better resemble mud volcanoes on Earth than lava volcanoes and impact craters on Mars. Next, the pictured dome has an unusually textured surface consistent with fractured ice. Infra-red images from space indicate that hills like this cool more quickly than surrounding rock, consistent with a dried mud composition. The hills also reflect colours consistent with a composition that formed in the presence of water. Finally, unusual plumes of gas containing methane have been found on Mars with unknown origin. These gas plumes could conceivably have been liberated by mud volcanoes, were the initially warm mud to contain methane-producing microbes drifting in a previously unobservable underground lake. A candidate mud volcano over 100 meters across is pictured above in the northern plains of Mars.

McNaught's comet..2007..

The Veil Nebula
Supernova Remnant
aka Bridal Veil, Cygus Loop, NGC 6960, Sh 2-103, LBN 191
Integrated Visual Magnitude: ~7
Apparent Diameter: 3o
Distance: 10 Mly
Minimum requirements to view: ordinary binoculars and very dark skies



The Bridal Veil nebula is a large and complex, spanning over 3o. The expelled remnants of a long ago supernova, it can be seen strewn all about the region on long exposure photos, but it is the two brightest parts that are typically seen visually. The brighter, eastern portion can be seen in binoculars from a dark site as a long curving hazy streak of light. Experienced observers under truly dark skies may be able to detect the western portion as well.
These nebulae are large, so use your lowest power eyepiece at the telescope. Robert Burnham Jr. described the view of the eastern portion (NGC 6992) in six to eight-inch scopes as "looking like a miniature Milky Way in itself in the field. It appears as a faint curved arc like a ghostly white rainbow, over one degree in length."

The western portion (NGC 6960) is more difficult, but can be observed in a 6-inch under dark skies as a faint haze. Owners of larger scopes may wish to try to see the illusive central portion of the nebula, which is found about part way between the two main halves. This nebulosity is both fainter and more spread out, making it quite difficult.

A UHC or OIII filter can really bring out the detail in the nebula. I was astounded when I first saw the Veil in an 18-inch with an OIII filter. The intricate filaments seen in photographs became obvious! One could spend hours following the arcs. A UHC filter produced similar results but the contrast with the background sky was not as enhanced. With the filter in place the nebulosity between the two main arcs became readily apparent.

One night I spent some time looking at the NGC 6960 in my 18-inch with an OIII filter in place. It looked unreal, shining with a steely, cold gray glow. It appeared as if it had been shaded in with shiny pencil led onto deep black paper. Tiny tendrils appeared in the brighter portions and faint nebulosity was found throughout the field. I was particularly struck by the north end, which comes to a point like the blade of a shiny steel sword. The south end of NGC 6960 widens until it bursts into several filaments that reminded me of the tentacles of a squid.

The Veil can be found about 4o to the south of Epsilon Cygni. The field of view shown here is about 6o. Stars are shown to 11th magnitude.



The view above is of the western loop in a 6-inch telescope at 50x. More difficult to see than its sister half, it can still be a good place to start because it is easy to find the correct star field due to the presence of the 4th magnitude star 52 Cyg. North is down, East is to the right.






This image from the Digital Sky Survey shows a 3o x 3o region about the nebula. North is up, east is left.


http://observing.skyhound.com/archives/aug1/NGC_6960.html

Pretty impressive stuff!

Really great photo's, fascinating!