Jason Nishiyama @evilscientistca@octodon.social
Teacher, astronomer, political scientist and father.
The Horsehead nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation of Orion. We see it because of glowing gas behind it. In this image blue is [OIII] light , green H alpha, and red [SII].
Our star the Sun is a middle aged star. It has been around for about 5 billion years and has about another 5 billion years left in it. https://octodon.social/media/P45eVKBrV2zz98Tefk8
Elements heavier than iron can't be made in stars. It takes the energy of supernova explosions to make heavier metals. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, all the gold in our banks and uranium in our weapons was forged in the death of stars. https://octodon.social/media/PoktWH6xVdZJd9V9OPk
All of the gas giant planets in our solar system have ring systems. Only Saturn's are spectacular enough to be visible through binoculars or a small telescope. https://octodon.social/media/OZG-4bCCOginA2dP1YY
Between about 0.01% and 1% of the mass of a planetary nebula is dust. This dust is detected by using infrared telescopes. https://octodon.social/media/hj6hDKs-7sFeekU1BPo
Messier 56 is a globular cluster in the constellation Lyra. It's about 33kly away and like most globular clusters has low metallicity, that is has lower amounts of elements heavier than helium. This suggests it is made up of very old stars. https://octodon.social/media/fuOl3bdiqrJpyVTiq2w
Because they take matter that was created in the centre of the star that has been dredged up by convection, planetary nebulae are important sources of galactic element enrichment for lighter elements such as He, C, O, and N. https://octodon.social/media/FtEHSBlX_bnS2tDZJoM
Though we generally say stars the mass of the Sun and larger turn into planetary nebulae at the end of their lives, the exact cut-off point isn't well understood and is in the range of ~1.0-1.2 solar masses. So the Sun may or may not become a planetary nebula. https://octodon.social/media/P5qqPVyaiHj8GCUyGm8
M78 is a reflection nebula, that is we see it because light is being reflected off the nebula from a nearby star. This is the cause of it looking blue as the blue light is selectively scattered back to us while the red light mostly goes through and we don't see it.
Frosty telescope after a night of work.
https://octodon.social/media/YehWoZ7HV1f43IMxi5g
Also sort of hot off the telescope (processing takes time...) the reflection nebula M78. 0.2m f3.9 Newtonian telescope. LRGB image. 5 minutes each R, G, and B. 8 minutes L. https://octodon.social/media/8nRGNYWakrGnCt5f95M
The planet Uranus hot off the telescope. RGB image, 3 seconds each filter. 0.2m f3.9 Newtonian telescope with 2.5x barlow lens. https://octodon.social/media/jO_dMn3iqEQtESZmmvw
In honour of the icy temperatures, ices in space. Comets are made up basically of ices (water, methane, etc.) and rocks. Their tail forms as they near the Sun and the ices melt and are blown back by the solar wind and radiation pressure. https://octodon.social/media/L6JkntBblGPmh6ti_NQ
This Herbig-Haro objects are jets of nebulosity associated with a newly formed star such as in this Hubble image. https://octodon.social/media/juPx7_B_Fa3-IBiw3kQ
Open clusters such as M11-The Wild Duck cluster- shown here are groups of young stars that have yet to drift apart into the galaxy. https://octodon.social/media/0T6YmgaGlALTGadSVs4
The colours on this image of the Horsehead aren't what the eye would see if it could. It maps the blue of the [OIII] line as blue, the red of the H alpha line as green and the red of the [SII] line as red. So the colours show were those elements are. https://octodon.social/media/briSNYTgksiTI3b3K9I
Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background by the Planck spacecraft give an age for the universe of 13.8 billion years. https://octodon.social/media/GNKu-qO4EEtqmcEfktA
Our closest neighbour in space, the Moon is the only other world humans have set foot on. https://octodon.social/media/pETdX7FJGpq45vK-Os0
M42-The Great Orion Nebula is spectacular even through a small telescope. In any reasonably dark site is is an easy naked eye object, though not as spectacular as through a small telescope. https://octodon.social/media/x_lT4gSZcy7Z4iK3dPo
Student plates growing (hopefully) genetically modified E. coli bacteria.
https://octodon.social/media/uwuAN5TL0hlFtofyTXc
