Another gorgeous DSO

[Craig]

http://gizmodo.com/5969607/this-awesome-destroyer-of-worlds-must-be-the-best-astronomy-image-of-the-year

 

The blue star in the center of the image is Zeta Ophiuchi, a titanic object "six times hotter, eight times wider, 20 times more massive, and about 80,000 times as bright" than our Sun. Located 370 light-years away from us, Zeta Ophiuchi is travelling across the Universe on its own, zooming through at 24 kilometers per second. That's an incredible 54,000mph. In the image, the star is going from the right side to the left.

 

For an object of that size, this is quite remarkable on its own—but there is more. The reason why this image taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope is so awesome is not the star itself, but what surrounds it.

 

Look at the pink and green threads of dust to the left, ahead of it. They are twisted and curved, as if they were running away from the star. The fact is that these columns of stellar dust are running away from it—they weren't like this a few years ago.

 

[philjay]

That looks like something youd see on the Enterprise view screen at the start of an episode where they are trapped by its gravitational pull and Spock suggests firing photon torpedoes into it whilst doing max reverse warp to save the day... sorry Ill fetch me coat

[Craig]

That looks like something youd see on the Enterprise view screen at the start of an episode where they are trapped by its gravitational pull and Spock suggests firing photon torpedoes into it whilst doing max reverse warp to save the day... sorry Ill fetch me coat

 

I must now watch the original series. (again)