Comments on: Another nearly perfect circle in space!

By: Aidan

Aidan — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:26:20 +0000

The dark patches are lack of gas/dust I guess, but that one in the lower left of the circle is SO round. Must be awfully tempting to over interpret features like that.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:48:14 +0000

The nebula in the background? The Milky Way goes through Cygnus.

By: cynthia

cynthia — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:17:23 +0000

Ooooo i love bubbles!

By: Odindon

Odindon — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:42:18 +0000

@6 QuietDesperation, you’re trying a little too hard man

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:59:57 +0000

That’s not a moon!

By: Anchor

Anchor — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:38:30 +0000

Now THAT is a photogenic setting in Cygnus.

By: Silent Bob

Silent Bob — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 07:58:30 +0000

@17

Ah!

“God does not ~~play dice~~ like pipes”.

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:33:17 +0000

@15
Yes, and as a result Einstein never accepted quantum mechanics.

By: Smitty

Smitty — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:28:10 +0000

@ Chief:

I second that. Totally looks like the Explorers force bubble.
Strangely enough despite seeing other SciFi flicks before that one, It was seeing Explorers as a kid that really got me thinking about space, what’s out there and how to get there.

Oh and hey, what’s that in the bottom left of the bubble? Is that a Proplyd?

By: Silent Bob

Silent Bob — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:21:39 +0000

@ 6

Intelligent Smoker.

Oxymoron.

O RLY?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjbREocsPqo

By: dave cortesi

dave cortesi — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 21:58:48 +0000

Was listening to a SciFri discussion of Voyager 1 locating the heliopause and it occurs to me: is not the Heliopause the exact same phenomenon as a planetary nebula? Only, of course, much more tenuous?

Or to put it another way, is a planetary nebula just the heliopause (stellopause?) of a star whose solar wind (stellar wind?) is just a heckuva lot stronger than Sol’s?

By: MarkW

MarkW — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:51:59 +0000

How big is the nebula? Is is a few AU? A few LY? Anyone?

By: Whomever1

Whomever1 — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:00:42 +0000

Enough about this crap–start talking about the liquid water flows on Mars! Whoot! Whoot! Whoot! NASA’s tv broadcast was amazing.
I do wonder one thing about big objects like this–or even more so on a galaxy sized object. Does it make any difference to the analysis of a galaxy (seen millions of light years away) that the nearer edge is about 100,000 years younger than the farther edge? Or is that such a trivial moment in time on these scales that it doesn’t matter. I’m imagining the bubble here if we modeled it in 3D would look flattened in back, and pointed towards us.

By: SkyGazer

SkyGazer — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:35:13 +0000

@Phill Plait for your info:
NASA to launch Lego figurines to Jupiter.
Jupiter, his wife Juno and Gallileo!
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/news/lego20110803.html

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:25:24 +0000

Someone forgot to use their coaster.

By: Sam H

Sam H — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:59:15 +0000

@ 1 Chief: I can see that myself!! That was a cheesy but very enjoyable movie
@6 Quiet Desperation: WIN.

It’d be nice to know how big this thing is – so far as I can see there’s no star centred exactly in the middle (although the brighter top-left member of that tiny triangle in the middle seems the most likely candidate). And also – why must the sun swallow planets in order to form a planetary nebula? Wouldn’t that happen regardless?

By: Bob Finn

Bob Finn — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:28:01 +0000

Piffle.

By: SkyGazer

SkyGazer — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:27:56 +0000

@Oh dear, did I insult the smokers in the audience?
Nah, just the morons, but they are offended by everything.

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:19:46 +0000

Is there spectrographic confirmation that it is, in fact, soap?

OMG, it’s Space Scrubbing Bubbles! They travel from planet to planet, cleaning and sterilizing the surfaces!

Intelligent Smoker.

Oxymoron.

Oh dear, did I insult the smokers in the audience?

I should post an appropriate pony pictu- … ah, the hell with ya.

would they be called “Hubble Bubbles?”

Hey! Science is serious!

It’s a real fumble to mumble silly rubble like “Hubble Bubble”. Science’s foundations would stumble and begin to crumble as people grumble about your hubble bubble, and the resulting jumble would be double trouble.

By: Bob Finn

Bob Finn — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:36:01 +0000

So if you had studied these when you were working on Hubble, would they be called “Hubble Bubbles?”

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:10:35 +0000

So what is the big patch of nebulosity in the background?

By: SkyGazer

SkyGazer — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:52:07 +0000

Space is full off beauty!
Maybe it´s the work of an Intelligent Smoker.

And off topic.

Want a laugh?
See this:
http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2011/08/climate-skeptics-cant-get-on-tv-says.html

By: Grand Lunar

Grand Lunar — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:45:09 +0000

I wonder if this will be the Sun’s appearence when it enters the planetary nebula phase.
Although I bet that the giant planets might fudge it up a bit.

Anyway, keep ‘em coming Phil! These are great!

By: Chief

Chief — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:45:57 +0000

Now this one looks like its from Explorers.

I wonder if more would be located above and below the disks of galaxies and less around the rims.