January 16, 2017 - Ghostly Bubble
Ghostly Bubble This extraordinary bubble, glowing like the ghost of a star in the haunting darkness of space, may appear supernatural and mysterious, but it is a familiar astronomical object: a planetary nebula, the remnants of a dying star. This is the best view of the little-known object ESO 378-1 yet obtained and was captured by European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. Nicknamed the Southern Owl Nebula, this shimmering orb has a diameter of almost four light-years, and is located in the constellation Hydra. Its nickname relates to its visual cousin in the northern hemisphere, the Owl Nebula. Like all planetary nebulae, ESO 378-1 is a relatively short-lived phenomenon, lasting only a few tens of thousands of years, compared to a typical stellar lifetime of several billion years.
Image credit: ESO
Weekly Calendar
January 16-22, 2017
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 16
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
1969: First docking of two human spacecraft (Soyuz 5 and Soyuz 4)
2003: STS-107 Columbia launched
Tuesday 17
Vesta at opposition
1985: 1,037th and final Aerobee sounding rocket launched
Wednesday 18
2002: Gemini South Observatory dedicated
Thursday 19
Jupiter 3° S of Moon
Mercury at greatest elong (24° W)
Last Qtr Moon 5:14 PM ET
1747: Johann Bode born
1851: Jacobus Kapteyn born
1965: Gemini II launched
2006: New Horizons launched
Friday 20
Jupiter 4° north of Spica
1573: Simon Marius born
1930: Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin born
1966: Apollo A-004 launched, first flight test of CSM hardware
1978: Progress 1 launched
Saturday 21
Moon at apogee
Sunday 22
1968: Apollo 5 launched
1978: First automatic resupply ship docking (Progress 1)
1992: STS-42 Discovery launched
1998: STS-89 Endeavour launched
2003: Pioneer 10’s last signal to Earth