BDx13
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Intricate Crab Nebula Poses for Hubble Close-Up
Tariq Malik
SPACE.com 2 hours, 42 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20051201/sc_space/intricatecra...
The Hubble Space Telescope has caught the most detailed view of the Crab Nebula, revealing the intricate epitaph of a long-dead star.
The nebula spans a patch of space six light-years across and has proved an attractive target for professional and amateur astronomers alike. One
light-year is the distance light travels in one year, about 5.8 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).
Wispy filaments, primarily of hydrogen, weave through the Crab Nebula, at the center of which sits a neutron star that spins 30 times per second.
The only fixed remains of the supernova explosion - the rest of the original star stuff has blown outward - the neutron star acts as a beacon,
spitting twin beams of radiation from its poles as it rotates.
The dense, city-sized object powers the Crab Nebula's bluish glow, which is generated by electrons that follow the neutron star's magnetic field
lines, astronomers said. The elemental composition of the nebula can be picked apart by color, with blue areas indicating neutral oxygen, green
regions showing singly ionized sulfur and red portions denoting doubly ionized oxygen, they added.
This image superimposes one of the largest ever produced by Hubble - and the highest resolution view ever of the nebula - over observations from the
European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. Astronomers used Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 to build the image.
Image Gallery: Hubble Space Telescope's Greatest Hits
Zoom Into Hubble's Detailed View of the Crab Nebula
Stunning New View of Energetic Crab Pulsar
Complete Coverage: The Hubble Space Telescope
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If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
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BDx13
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i know we've done this before, but for those of you interested, 6 light years is 35.2 TRILLION miles (35,247,539,545,223.73 miles, to be exact). as
far as i can tell, that's 1,415,563,837 times around the equator.
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
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Voodoobillyman
The Artist Formerly Known As...
Posts: 4247
Registered: 8-12-2005
Location: Eastern Seaboard of the United States
Member Is Offline
Mood: my daughters beautiful curiousity
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The sun will eventually do the same thing.
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defstarsteve
Posting Freak
Posts: 3505
Registered: 11-19-2003
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Voodoobillyman
The sun will eventually do the same thing. |
but not soon enough
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upyerbum
Posting Freak
Posts: 3226
Registered: 10-14-2005
Location: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Member Is Offline
Mood: Condemned 84
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Looks like what I horked up in the shower this AM.
Well, its this place where nobody works, and the pigs don\'t give you any shit. Everyone smokes weed and gets drunk all day. Its a place where
cunts like me and you can truly take it easy and relax. Know what I mean?
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