Comments on: Arachnophilia

By: Happy birthday Hubble (for real this time) | Bad Astronomy | moregoodstuff.info

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:42:29 +0000

[...] Crafting a Hubble galaxy in two minutes – Scattered jewels in the core of a cluster – Arachnophilia – Hubble sees baby stars eating sandwiches and blowing bubbles

By: LeAnn Craddock

LeAnn Craddock — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:47:19 +0000

I keep thinking it just can’t get better then it does. I had hundreds of pictures on my iPhone and I just lost over half because of backing up my phone. Apparently your not supposed to. This is beautiful. Keep em coming.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:27:35 +0000

See :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bok_globule

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_formation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_Tauri_star for more.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:26:19 +0000

@11. Ross Says:

Has anyone on Earth yet observed the actual birth of a star? i.e. looked at a patch of sky, then later looked again and found a star that wasn’t there before?

Well, that answer is yes – but what’s happening there is the opposite of star birth.

Novae, supernovae and hypernovae have suddenly made “invisible” (too dim) stars become visible. But briefly.

Would a star go from non-luminous to luminous on any time scale that we might observe?

Afraid not. Stars are born inside coccooons of dark gas and dust (bok globules) and it takes awhile after they “ignite” (start fusing Hydrogen at their cores) for this material to get cleared away enough to see them.

We’ve seen some *very* young and just forming stars -T-Tauri, RU Lupi and other “nebular variables” but catching a star in its first minutes in a process that takes millions of years and is thickly enshrouded and hidden from view, not easy at all.

Infra-red astronomy has however captured some extremely young stars still forming in some nebulae such as M42 the Great Orion nebula.

By: Image Of The Tarantula Nebula Makes Me Shoot Web. « OMEGA-LEVEL.NET -

Image Of The Tarantula Nebula Makes Me Shoot Web. « OMEGA-LEVEL.NET - — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:48:52 +0000

[...] Enlarge. | Via. [...]

By: Sam H

Sam H — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:39:50 +0000

@ Gary #12: I know about that but still, the fact that it would cast a shadow at the distance of M42 leads me to believe that the night sky would probably glow just a little bit. Aside from the sky being “dirty” I think we’d also see glowing nebulosity around nearby stars within the nebula. What d’you say to that Phil? (along with my comment about the NGC 604 “grandaddy”?)

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:32:12 +0000

“Yes I will. I’m no photon.”

If you were, the trip would appear to be instantaneous. Now, THAT’S care free travel.

9. Sam H

“Just beautiful. Imagine if there are planets in that nebula…and the SKY on them would be…well, indescribable of course.”

I expect, from that vantage point, the night sky would seem just a bit dusty. We see it as brilliant because of our very long view, with all that gas and dust lit by all those stars. Living in the middle of it, it would appear the rest of the universe was just really dirty.

Gary 7

By: Ross

Ross — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:15:53 +0000

Has anyone on Earth yet observed the actual birth of a star? i.e. looked at a patch of sky, then later looked again and found a star that wasn’t there before? Would a star go from non-luminous to luminous on any time scale that we might observe?

By: Jess Tauber

Jess Tauber — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:14:37 +0000

Why haven’t astronomers generally not linked the extended spirals of bright stars to such compression of sheets and filaments of gas extending from a prior supernova?

Jess Tauber

By: Sam H

Sam H — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:03:41 +0000

Just beautiful. Imagine if there are planets in that nebula…and the SKY on them would be…well, indescribable of course. At least I think so – I’ve read that if this were as close as M42 it would cast a shadow. My space art would come to life!!

But 30 Doradus being the “grandaddy” of NGC 604? That’s one’s a LOT farther away, and it’s still visible in decently sized telescopes. Not does Wikipedia tell me it’s bigger (or at least about the same size), it says that if it were as close as M42 it would outshine Venus. So who’s the real “grandaddy” here?

But then again, we all know how inaccurate the wikis can be these days