Deep Space Inhabitants - Nebulae

Credit: NASA/ESA/HEIC/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: R. Corradi (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Spain), Z. Tsvetanov (NASA)

Deep space nebulae - the eye candy of astronomy. These clouds of space dust, plasma and hydrogen are some of the most beautiful objects in deep space. The image above is of the Cat's Eye nebula, which is actually a dying star. If you've noticed a similarity between it and Sauron's eye from the Lord of the Rings movies, you're not the first. It wasn't the only nebula I found that looked like an eye. I'll end this post with another one.

Credit: T.A.Rector (NOAO/AURA/NSF)/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA)

Perhaps more familiar is the Horsehead nebula in the constellation of Orion. I remember this nebula from school, so we've had pictures of it for a while. This one is from the Hubble Space Telescope, as are all the images here. It's a wonderful thing when science and art converge.

Credit: NASA/ESA/The Hubble Heritage
(STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
Acknowledgment: J. Hester (Arizona State University)

The delicate colors of the Veil nebula, above, are the remnants of a supernova explosion.

Credit: NASA/ESA/J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)

The same is true of the Crab nebula - it's also the remains of a supernova. Its blue glow comes from a neutron star at its center. According to the news release for this image, "The blue light comes from electrons whirling at nearly the speed of light around magnetic field lines from the neutron star. ... A neutron star is the crushed ultra-dense core of the exploded star."

Credit: NASA/ESA/J. Hester (Arizona State University)

Nebulae aren't always about star deaths. They can also be places of star formation. The Omega or Swan nebula, above, is a complex structure, with ultraviolet radiation interacting with hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur. The radiation is coming from young stars that aren't quite in the image.

Credit: NASA/ESA/M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA)/
The Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

Another region of star formation is the Orion nebula, only 1,500 light years from Earth. Thousands of stars are being born in this beautiful chaos.

Credit: NASA/H. Ford (JHU)/G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO)/M.Clampin (STScI)/
G. Hartig (STScI)/The ACS Science Team/ESA

Finally, we have one more image of the Omega or Swan nebula. This is the other eye I saw - notice the red half-circle to the right of and below center. Notice also the red arc to its right. Then imagine some reclining being and that's its eye, with a red eyebrow. Not as scary as Sauron, but still not someone I'd like to have an encounter with anytime soon. Nebulae are gorgeous, until you start finding stuff in them...