Spooky Astronomy, part 4
- By Maggie Masetti
- October 31, 2013
- 1 Comment
It’s one of my favorites times of year – the Halloween season! And with Halloween comes our annual Spooky Astronomy post. This time I’ve been saving images up all year, so hopefully you’ll see something new!
A grinning one-eyed skull? Actually a complex planetary nebula around a dying star.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S.Carey (Caltech)
Here a “galactic ghoul” rears its spooky head to the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope. (It’s actually star-forming region DR6!)
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S.Carey (Caltech)
Raise your hand if you like spiders! No one? I’m sure this nebula is spider-free… unless you look at it in the infrared! This “Black Widow Nebula” is made from “bubbles” being formed in opposing directions by outflows from massive groups of baby stars.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S.Carey (Caltech)
The below image shows the birth of a monster… star. It’s in the process of forming within a dark cloud and it will someday have 100 times the mass of the sun!
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S.Carey (Caltech)
Ghostly orbs float through space in this ultraviolet image from GALEX. Actually, this image shows a runaway star (center), plowing through space and piling up interstellar material before it!
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S.Carey (Caltech)
More ghostly orbs, green this time. This one is a planetary nebula around a dying star.
Credit: ESO
This little alien “space invader” with glowing eyes is actually a spiral galaxy that has been distorted in appearance due to gravitational lensing.
Credit: NASA & ESA. Acknowledgement: N. Rose
Screaming skull with flaming hair? Nope, another planetary nebula!
Credit: Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF)
Here are a few more from the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archives – the Red Spider Planetary Nebula, and a ghost in Cepheus.
We’ll close with our spooky astronomy images from 2012, 2011 and 2010 – they’re worth checking out if you haven’t seen them!
:)