This image captures the Tarantula Nebula in all of its cosmic glory. Astronomers study nebulae like this one to learn about how elements form and disperse throughout the galaxy, seeding space with planetary building blocks.
Clouds of dust and gas called nebulae speckle our galaxy. Some are ferocious cosmic factories that churn out baby stars by the hundreds of thousands, while others are grave markers of stars long dead. Astronomers study them to learn about how stars and planets form, and how ingredients are recycled in space.
But all that dust is difficult to see through, and nebulae are often so large that today’s most powerful space telescopes can only realistically study tiny patches of them. That’s where our soon-to-launch Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope comes in.
This video of the Eagle Nebula showcases Roman’s superb resolution and wide field of view. It begins with a Hubble image of the famous Pillars of Creation superimposed on a ground-based image. The view then zooms out to show the full field of view of Roman’s Wide Field Instrument. Roman’s images will have the resolution of Hubble while covering an area about 100 times larger in a single pointing.
Roman will pair a large view of space with infrared heat vision. That combination is a game-changer for studying nebulae.
Here’s how it usually works. Ground-based telescopes take large but somewhat blurry images of a nebula. Then space-based observatories like our Hubble and James Webb space telescopes zoom in on small patches to show us the details of particularly interesting regions. But with Roman, we’ll get the big picture and incredible detail all in one.
That saves astronomers a lot of time, which opens up new avenues of exploration. For example, instead of spending several months stitching together hundreds of individual images of the Orion nebula with Hubble or Webb, Roman could cover it in a matter of hours in just a few snapshots.
Roman’s vast surveys will give us a census of stellar nurseries, where fledgling stars are being born from parent clouds of gas and dust. Studying these nebular nesting grounds will reveal millions of stellar embryos, newborn stars still swaddled in shrouds of dust, toddler stars that throw tantrums and flare unpredictably, and young stars that may have planetary systems forming around them.
A single Roman survey of our Milky Way galaxy will capture thousands of nebulae, unveiling planet formation and the full lifecycle of stars like never before. That includes their spectacular final acts.
This Hubble image showcases the Hourglass nebula, a young planetary nebula located about 8,000 light-years away.
Garden-variety stars like the Sun live fairly placid lives, casually churning out heat and light for billions of years by fusing hydrogen into helium. That nuclear process creates a lot of energy and outward pressure. For a long time, it’s held in check by the inward pull of gravity. But when a star runs out of fuel to fuse, gravity takes over.
Their cores shrink so fast that their outer shells of gas are left behind, which puff out and transform into unique and often psychedelic works of art called planetary nebulae (so-called because they looked similar to planets in early telescopes). Heftier stars meet more dramatic fates, with a runaway reaction that leads to the star’s detonation: a supernova explosion! Both result in nebulae that look like kaleidoscopic dreamscapes.
This image of supernova remnant W49B combines X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in blue and green, radio data from the NSF’s Very Large Array in pink, and infrared data from Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in yellow.
Star deaths create conditions so extreme that it can form new elements. The iron, oxygen, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, and nickel that together account for around 96% of the Earth's bulk were flung into space by supernova explosions. And some of the elements that make up your DNA, like carbon and nitrogen, were forged by smaller dying stars. You are literally made of stardust!
Roman will help us learn more about how elements were created and distributed throughout the galaxy, all while exploring many other cosmic questions.
This artist’s concept visualizes visible light in blue, showing how its short wavelength means it will easily run into dust particles. Longer wavelength infrared light, visualized in orange, can more easily pass through dust.
Roman’s infrared vision is key, because it will allow astronomers to see through the dust that often blocks telescopes that view other types of light. It’s hard for visible light to penetrate this dusty haze because the particles are the same size or even larger than the light’s wavelength. Since infrared light travels in longer waves, it hardly notices the tiny particles and can pass more easily through dusty regions.
By seeing through dust, we'll get a far better view of stars and other objects that are in nebulae and the cosmic structures that lie behind them. Astronomers will soon be able to chart our galaxy like never before!
An artist’s concept based on the final design of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
We’re only about a month out from launch, and so close to a completely new understanding of the universe and our place within it. Follow along with Roman’s road to launch at nasa.gov/roman, and virtually tour the Roman observatory here.
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I've been listening to the new soundtracks since they dropped (ATLA Book 3 soundtrack!! Ah! The memories!!) and with the movie and then the trailer for the show... all I can think about is 'where's Suki?!' rn (To be fair, I haven't read the comics, so maybe it's answered there or in that movie I haven't watched yet?)
That ‘comment on your a03 work’ email hits like a line of cocaine every time. unmatched dopamine increase. shoutout to everyone who leaves a comment on fics. you deserve the world
if you want me to consume a new media you MUST catch me at the exact moment when the stars are aligned and the air pressure is equal to the current degree of the sun’s peak against the horizon and all the cosmic energies are perfectly unified (aka my old interest is fading out) or i will nod and say “im adding that to my list!” Knowing theres no chance i will check it out
“unless its a book!” “unless you tell me it has gay people in it!” “this but only for live action shows” “theres a good chance i’ll get to it eventually” no wrong this post is not for you this post is ONLY for bitches who could have a treasured friend recommend them something that sounds grown in a lab to be your personal catnip and, with no choice in the matter, immediately know it will never be the right time to watch/read/listen to it
i’m just saying aragorn son of arathorn oh im sorry STRIDER (one of them rangers what his right name is i never heard etc etc) didn’t need to be that sexy at the prancing pony. like ostensibly he’s trying to lay low but even dipshit little [relatively] eighteen y/o frodo is like hey what’s the deal with that extremely ostentatiously sexy man in the corner
“you draw far too much attention to yourself ‘mister underhill’” if i were frodo i wouldve snapped. jesus christ. i can’t help that i’m two feet shorter than everyone else in this definitely definitely 100% a gay bar but at least i didn’t lurk in a sexy corner making eyes at everybody from under my cloak at least im TRYING to pretend i’m not a protagonist you fine ass idiot. i KNOW i’m being pursued by the black riders which is why i didn’t SERVE CUNT from the SHADOWS. the fellowship of the nerve of this bitch
So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.
I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how? How does he know it?” Interrogate your witnesses. Cross-examine them. Make them explain their reasoning. It pays dividends.
First, let me preface this with something very important: you can treat all of this advice as SECOND-DRAFT ADVICE. It is so much easier to rewrite this kind of stuff once you have words on the page. Telling yourself the first draft is totally appropriate and acceptable.
What we’re talking about here are FILTER WORDS (and to some degree verbs of being). Yes, “thought” words are included. But so are “heard, saw, looked, tasted, smelled” etc.—most words having to do with the senses.
This isn’t black and white advice; sometimes you’ll use these words and that’s okay. They’re not WRONG. They’re just weaker. And they’re weaker because they create distance between the reader and the experience of the character.*
If you want your reader to feel like they’re experiencing the story right alongside the character, you want to cut down on filter words.
*This is particularly important with first person and close third POVs. The reader always knows whose eyes they’re seeing through and thoughts they’re privy to. So you don’t need to tell them “I saw X.” Or “I heard X.” Or “I thought Y.” You can just jump into the action/observation as it’s happening.
This is also where you want to pay attention to verbs of being.
“It was rainy.” Versus: “The rain pounded against the roof.” Or “The rain howled like an injured animal.” Or “The rain tapped against the window like an anxious lover.” All of these are inviting the reader deeper into the experience of the story by using stronger verbs and similes. And, at the same time, they stir feelings (instead of TELLING feelings). And feelings keep your reader engaged. Engaged readers keep turning pages; engaged readers become FANS.
