Todays pic is another great nebula picture, posted just for the sheer beauty, although good, this picture doesn't really do justice to the beauty that is visible; it is best appreciated by following the link below to the larger images that are available; the higher resolutions of these pics make for much better viewing.
Ghostly Reflections in the Pleiades
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of a dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like a flashlight beam shining off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light off the surface of pitch black clouds of cold gas laced with dust. These are called reflection nebulae.
The famous cluster is easily visible in the evening sky during the winter months as a small grouping of bright blue stars, named after the "Seven Sisters" of Greek mythology. Resembling a small dipper, this star cluster lies in the constellation Taurus at a distance of about 380 light-years from Earth. The unaided eye can discern about half a dozen bright stars in the cluster, but a small telescope will reveal that the Pleiades contains many hundreds of fainter stars.
A full text article and larger versions of this piccy can be found here, the are up to 777KB in size; the images are linked to on this page so there are no probs for 56K users.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
05th May 03
03rd May 03
30th Apr 03
26th Apr 03
24th Apr 03
22nd Apr 03
19th Apr 03
Ghostly Reflections in the Pleiades
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of a dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like a flashlight beam shining off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light off the surface of pitch black clouds of cold gas laced with dust. These are called reflection nebulae.
The famous cluster is easily visible in the evening sky during the winter months as a small grouping of bright blue stars, named after the "Seven Sisters" of Greek mythology. Resembling a small dipper, this star cluster lies in the constellation Taurus at a distance of about 380 light-years from Earth. The unaided eye can discern about half a dozen bright stars in the cluster, but a small telescope will reveal that the Pleiades contains many hundreds of fainter stars.
A full text article and larger versions of this piccy can be found here, the are up to 777KB in size; the images are linked to on this page so there are no probs for 56K users.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
05th May 03
03rd May 03
30th Apr 03
26th Apr 03
24th Apr 03
22nd Apr 03
19th Apr 03
;p