January 11, 2008 10:08
More Astronomy Porn
These giant, glowing clouds of gas and dust are the remnants of two different exploding stars. /Gemini Observatory / Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS-South) Image
No, the headline doesn't't refer to astronomers behaving badly—it's just that the pictures we're getting from deep space this week are too delectable to pass up. They're all coming out now because the American Astronomical Society is in the midst of its annual winter meeting (the venue changes each year; this time they're in Austin, Texas) and observatories are falling over themselves to show their latest, greatest results.
This one shows the expanding clouds of gas and dust from two independent supernova explosions that lie on a line of sight with each other (i.e., they're not really overlapping, despite how it looks). The explosions happened in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small companion galaxy of the Milky Way, probably tens of thousands of years earlier than what we're seeing here, but since the LMC is about 160,000 light-years away, the actual supernovas went off much longer ago.
Explosions like these spew out elements like carbon and oxygen, which are only formed in the nuclear furnaces at the cores of stars. Without stars to manufacture these and other key elements, planets—and the people who live on them—wouldn't exist.
This image looks like it must have come from the Hubble, but not so: it's from the Gemini South observatory, in Chile (its twin, Gemini North, is in Hawaii). Just goes to show you that while it's nice to have a telescope in space, it isn't always necessary.
Note of pride: my very first cover story for TIME was on a supernova that went off in the Large Magellanic cloud in 1987 (or again, the light got here in '87).
More to come...
About Eye On Science
TIME contributing writer Michael D. Lemonick fills you in on what's hot, what's cool, what's controversial and what's just plain silly in the world of science. Comments encouraged.
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Reader Comments (5)
i have to say, "astronomy porn" is a very fitting description for these types of images, which stir up strange, primal feelings in the very core of our beings until . . . woah, sorry about that, i got a little carried away there for a second. um . . . yeah . . . cool pic . . . wouldn't mind more of these to satisfy my, uh, scientific curiosity . . .
--Cute. Another one is on the way...
Posted by Saint Andeol | January 11, 2008 2:07 PM
Actually, it does look a bit like a discarded bra...
Posted by Arcesileus | January 15, 2008 7:46 AM
Sorry but as an scientist, martial art learner and amateur astronomist i do not see why to use such a word for picture of such beauty ?
As a human being i dot not share your view.
And a bra, even a "cosmic one", has something to do
with again this "p" word? Sorry, i just do not follow you. May be it was try of humor ?
--Maybe so.
M.L.
Posted by fracty | January 18, 2008 7:18 PM
As a a philosopher, ninja and amateur fashion prophet, I think Cosmic Bras are going to be the next big thing in the saucy world of astronomy.
Posted by Aladdin Collar | March 31, 2008 11:23 PM
interesting titles might convince reader to go on reading... anyway, information you provide is more important than the title itself... thanks
Posted by ezgi ingilizce | April 1, 2008 10:01 AM