((Off-Topic)) StarnetGypsy or any 'space buffs' here: ''Pink Pleiades''

[Uncle B]

The thumbnail opens a S HQ image..

Pink Pleiades




Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/J. Stauffer (SSC/Caltech)

The Seven Sisters, also known as the Pleiades star cluster, seem to float on a bed of feathers in a new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Clouds of dust sweep around the stars, swaddling them in a cushiony veil.

The Pleiades, located more than 400 light-years away in the Taurus constellation, are the subject of many legends and writings. Greek mythology holds that the flock of stars was transformed into celestial doves by Zeus to save them from a pursuant Orion. The 19th-century poet Alfred Lord Tennyson described them as "glittering like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid."

The star cluster was born when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, about 100 million years ago. It is significantly younger than our 5-billion-year-old sun. The brightest members of the cluster, also the highest-mass stars, are known in Greek mythology as two parents, Atlas and Pleione, and their seven daughters, Alcyone, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, Celaeno and Asterope. There are thousands of additional lower-mass members, including many stars like our sun. Some scientists believe that our sun grew up in a crowded region like the Pleiades, before migrating to its present, more isolated home.

The new infrared image from Spitzer highlights the "tangled silver braid" mentioned in the poem by Tennyson. This spider-web-like network of filaments, colored red in this view, is made up of dust associated with the cloud through which the cluster is traveling. One of the parent stars, Atlas, can be seen at the bottom, while six of the sisters are visible at top. Additional stars in the cluster are sprinkled throughout the picture in blue.

The Spitzer data also reveal never-before-seen brown dwarfs, or "failed stars," and disks of planetary debris (not pictured). John Stauffer of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope mission says Spitzer's infrared vision allows astronomers to better study the cooler, lower-mass stars in the region, which are much fainter when viewed in optical light. Stauffer, who admits to being biased because the Pleiades is his favorite astronomical object, says the cluster is the perfect laboratory for understanding the evolution of stars.

This image shows infrared light captured by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Light with wavelengths of 8 and 5.8 microns is red and orange; light of 4.5 microns is green; and light of 3.6 microns is blue.

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[StarnetGypsy]

Thanks Unc. I always get a chubby lookin at the 7sisters on a clear nite.

btw .. is that the monolith from the movie 2001 floating in the top-left center of the picture? def rectangular in shape an not a star.

[jag]

"...carry seven thousand people past the sun..."
-- grace slick

[Uncle B]

Originally Posted by StarnetGypsy

Thanks Unc. I always get a chubby lookin at the 7sisters on a clear nite.

btw .. is that the monolith from the movie 2001 floating in the top-left center of the picture? def rectangular in shape an not a star.

''my God, it's full of stars.''

[StarnetGypsy]

Originally Posted by jag

"...carry seven thousand people past the sun..."
-- grace slick

Yes! Of course, that's it, the Jefferson Starship w/Marty at the helm

[jag]

Originally Posted by StarnetGypsy

Yes! Of course, that's it, the Jefferson Starship w/Marty at the helm

"going to hijaak, hijaak a starship...."

[jag]

this thread made me break out my old sextant to do a sun shot....

my new handle may be celestial navigators do it with heavenly bodies...

[StarnetGypsy]

Originally Posted by jag

this thread made me break out my old sextant to do a sun shot....

my new handle may be celestial navigators do it with heavenly bodies...

Had the opp to meet 3 of the Airplane. Skip Spence the drummer in Mill Valley at a party. Met Jorma Kaukonen up in Campbell River on Quadra Island (BC) in the 70's. Was really high on LSD and he came over to our A-frame and gave an impromtu exhibition of the songs he did on 12-string (WOW). It was like being in the studio when they recorded them. And lived next door to the first lead singer, Signe Anderson, in Portland. On the album "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off" where they're all standing around the bi-plane, she's wearing a pea-coat to hide her being 8/mos pregnant, with her daughter. She actually got me all their autographs on that album when she went down to Cisco for a legal meet over a royalty battle w/Marty Balin.

In the Haight (and NYC in the old days), people were very approachable .. unlike today.

[(sportman)]

[StarnetGypsy]

it's hard getting google pics to work sporto.

[Uncle B]

now, this is cool...

The Horsehead Nebula


(shq image)
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA)

The Horsehead Nebula/IC434

This exceptional image of the Horsehead nebula was taken at the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera. Located in the constellation of Orion, the Hunter, the Horsehead is part of a dense cloud of gas in front of an active star-forming nebula known as IC434. The nebulosity of the Horsehead is believed to be excited by the bright star Sigma Orionis, which is located above the top of the image. Just off the left side of the image is the bright star Zeta Orionis, which is the easternmost of the three stars that form Orion's belt. Zeta Orionis is a foreground star, and is not related to the nebula. The streaks in the nebulosity that extend above the Horsehead are likely due to magnetic fields within the nebula. Close study reveals that many more stars are visible in the top half of the image. Stars in the lower half of the image are obscured by a dark cloud of hydrogen gas. The edge of this large cloud is the horizontal strip of glowing gas that bisects the image. The Horsehead is located about 1,600 light-years away from Earth. The area shown in this image is quite large on the sky, covering about five times the area of the full Moon.

[StarnetGypsy]

Originally Posted by Uncle B

now, this is cool...

It truly is, Unc.

Here's a couple pics of my own little universe right now. One is where my office was before they bulldozed the house I was told to get out of in 2/weeks, and the 2nd one is what is doubling as an office in my trailer I'm livin in now. Next stop, Nevada desert


Old office


New office

[Uncle B]

hey, your dog has a gimpy ear too, eh?


last big dog i had, blew out her ear from shaking her head too much or something.. it was all ballooned up, and they had to cut it to get the air out, then sewed it back flat, but, it was all floppy after that.

so she always had one pointed up, one flopped down...shit was cool looking..

man, i miss havin a big dog.. this yappy little shit here is driving me insane.

[StarnetGypsy]

ayep, the broken ear is common among Shepperds & Dobes. They have large ears and the cartilidge sometimes gets 'broken' from the weight when they're pups, like my guy.

yeah, big dogs def are an advantage because they're usually mellow.

was thinkin today about how when we have to put them down at 12 -15 and how it effects us. I think one reason is that we're puttin down a dog that is basically a teenager in our years, and it hurts us more because they're so young it seems, eventho they're old in dog years. he's 7 now and I sorta hope i'm gone before he is sometimes ... put too many pooches down for my liking.

[Uncle B]

Originally Posted by StarnetGypsy

ayep, the broken ear is common among Shepperds & Dobes. They have large ears and the cartilidge sometimes gets 'broken' from the weight when they're pups, like my guy.

yeah, big dogs def are an advantage because they're usually mellow.

was thinkin today about how when we have to put them down at 12 -15 and how it effects us. I think one reason is that we're puttin down a dog that is basically a teenager in our years, and it hurts us more because they're so young it seems, eventho they're old in dog years. he's 7 now and I sorta hope i'm gone before he is sometimes ... put too many pooches down for my liking.

I've only had to do 2 so far.. last one was relatively easy, for a number of reasons, but, definitely nothing i ever look forward to having to do again, but, comes with the territory i suppose.

Dealing with the wife the day of was a nightmare though...broke my heart seeing her so upset all day.

think it helped that they let me hold our dog while they did the injection, etc... and her father came to the clinic as well, and waited with her outside, so, it could definitely have been worse.


the one we have now... i dunno.


he is o.k., but, too fuckin yappy for me....drives me insane, when he gets worked up with the friggin toy, and refuses to let up.


Tempting sometimes, to toss the fuckin toy into the expressway....

[StarnetGypsy]

Originally Posted by Uncle B

Tempting sometimes, to toss the fuckin toy into the expressway....

ha ha ha!! reminds me of that movie Vacation w/Chevy Chase where they drove off down the road w/the yappy dog attached to the back bumper

[Uncle B]

Not sure how much longer it's scheduled to on, but, they have been running some sort of "The Universe" marathon on History channel since about 7am...Some pretty interesting stuff so far, for anyone into this stuff.

[jag]

"cat's eye"

bbc science news attribution



polamar !!!

[Uncle B]

Here's a pretty cool pic, from Hubble..

Dying Star Creates Sculpture of Gas and Dust