September 22, 2014 - Pan-Fried Globules

Pan-Fried Globules This intriguing view of a spectacular stellar nursery IC 2944, about 6,500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Centaurus, was captured by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. This image also shows a group of thick clouds of dust—Bok globules—known as the Thackeray globules. They are silhouetted against the pale pink glowing gas of the nebula. These globules are under fierce bombardment from the ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot young stars. They are both being eroded away and also fragmenting, rather like lumps of butter dropped onto a hot frying pan, and it is likely that these globules will be destroyed before they can collapse and form new stars. This image is the sharpest view of the object ever taken from the ground.

Image credit: ESO

Weekly Calendar

September 22-28, 2014

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

 

Monday 22

Equinox 10:29 PM ET
Pluto appears stationary

1990: Pioneer 10 reaches 50 AU from Sun
2006: Hinode spacecraft launched
2014: MAVEN spacecraft enters orbit around Mars

Tuesday 23

1783: Caroline Herschel discovers NGC 253
1846: J. G. Galle discovers Neptune
1962: “The Jetsons” premieres
1977: Third glide test of space shuttle Enterprise

Wednesday 24

Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset

New Moon 2:14 AM ET

1930: John Young born
1962: MOOSE astronaut rescue system proposed
1970: Luna 16 returns lunar soil samples
1999: IKONOS-1 launched
2014: Mars Orbiter Mission enters orbit around Mars

Thursday 25

1973: 59-day Skylab 3 mission ends
1992: Mars Observer launched
1997: STS-86 Atlantis launched
2008: Shenzhou 7 launched
2013: Soyuz TMA-10M launched carrying ISS Expedition 37/38 crew
2014: Soyuz TMA-14M launched carrying ISS Expedition 41/42 crew

Friday 26

Mercury 4° south of Moon

Saturday 27

Mars 3° north of Antares
Ceres 0.1° north of Moon

1814: Daniel Kirkwood born
2007: Dawn spacecraft launched

Sunday 28

Saturn 0.7° south of Moon
Vesta 0.5° south of Moon