The death (and birth) of stars caught on camera

[mrk]

No not Celebs.

Close-Up Photos of Dying Star Show Our Sun's Fate
About 550 light-years from Earth, a star like our Sun is writhing in its death throes. Chi Cygni has swollen in size to become a red giant star so large that it would swallow every planet out to Mars in our solar system. Moreover, it has begun to pulse dramatically in and out, beating like a giant heart. New close-up photos of the surface of this distant star show its throbbing motions in unprecedented detail.
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Chi Cygni, shown in this artist's conception, is a red giant star nearing the end of its life. As it runs out of fuel, it pulses in and out, beating like a giant heart and ejecting shells of material. Observations by the Infrared Optical Telescope Array found that, at minimum radius, Chi Cygni shows marked inhomogeneities due to roiling "hotspots" on its surface. (Credit: ESO/L. Calçada)


And on the other end of the cosmic scale...

Herschel space telescope captures birth of stars.
The European Space Agency (Esa) has released stunning new pictures from the recently launched Herschel telescope.

The pictures show star formation, and have been described as among the most important images obtained from space for decades.

Astronomers hope that, by analysing these images, they will be able to answer questions about how stars and galaxies are made.

Herschel is the largest astronomical telescope ever to be put into space.

It has captured images of previously invisible stardust. This is the stuff that galaxies, stars, planets and all life is made from, and scientists are studying it to follow the life cycle of the cosmos.
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The vacuum of space is full of wispy clouds of stardust

<3 Space.

 

[Bennie-Mac]

Awesome stuff

 

[kylew]

You and your misleading thread titles!

 

[_Gizka_]

What o so little we know about space really does rock.

 

[Richdog]

As awesome as those space photos are, genuinely fascinating, I just giggled like a small child when I saw that pic of Michaelangelo grinning out of the page at me. Very, very random.

 

[Cosimo]

As awesome as those space photos are, genuinely fascinating, I just giggled like a small child when I saw that pic of Michaelangelo grinning out of the page at me. Very, very random.

The first one is an artist’s conception, it's not a real space photo.

 

[mrk]

May as well be real considering the type of actual photos captured from deep field look as stunning if not better

 

[gillywibble]

Thanks for sharing