Interstellar

A blog about interstellar space, our universe, space-time and everything in between.

[cooper-station]

LIGO has spotted the most massive black hole collision ever detected

A puzzling gravitational wave was detected, and astronomers have determined that it comes from a record-breaking black hole merger

[cooper-station]

Could Europa Clipper find life?

For a mission that doesn’t aim to find alien life, Europa Clipper may come surprisingly close.

[cooper-station]

It all started with a Big Bang: The quest to unravel the mystery behind the birth of the universe

How did everything begin? It's a question that humans have pondered for thousands of years. Over the last century or so, science has homed i

[cooper-station]

More evidence for black holes as the source of dark energy

More evidence for black holes as the source of dark energy

[cooper-station]

Learning more about supernovae through stardust

Most of the diverse elements in the universe come from supernovae. We are, quite literally, made of the dust of those long-dead stars and ot

[cooper-station]

It all started with a Big Bang: The quest to unravel the mystery behind the birth of the universe

How did everything begin? It's a question that humans have pondered for thousands of years. Over the last century or so, science has homed i

[dessonges]

Hubble Views the Dawn of a Sun-like Star | Hubble Space Telescope

Looking like a glittering cosmic geode, a trio of dazzling stars blaze from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The triple-star system is made up of the variable star HP Tau, HP Tau G2, and HP Tau G3. HP Tau is known as a T Tauri star, a type of young variable star that hasn’t begun nuclear fusion yet but is beginning to evolve into a hydrogen-fueled star similar to our Sun. T Tauri stars tend to be younger than 10 million years old ― in comparison, our Sun is around 4.6 billion years old ― and are often found still swaddled in the clouds of dust and gas from which they formed. As with all variable stars, HP Tau’s brightness changes over time. T Tauri stars are known to have both periodic and random fluctuations in brightness. The random variations may be due to the chaotic nature of a developing young star, such as instabilities in the accretion disk of dust and gas around the star, material from that disk falling onto the star and being consumed, and flares on the star’s surface. The periodic changes may be due to giant sunspots rotating in and out of view. Curving around the stars, a cloud of gas and dust shines with their reflected light. Reflection nebulae do not emit visible light of their own, but shine as the light from nearby stars bounces off the gas and dust, like fog illuminated by the glow of a car’s headlights. HP Tau is located approximately 550 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Hubble studied HP Tau as part of an investigation into protoplanetary disks, the disks of material around stars that coalesce into planets over millions of years.

Credits : NASA, ESA, G. Duchene (Université de Grenoble I); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

[petrichara]

‘Love is the one thing that we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.’

“Eulogy from a Physicist” by Aaron Freeman, with quotes from Interstellar by Christopher Nolan, and images from NASA, Interstellar, Getty, Petrichara, and Reuters.

1- NASA: GOODS-South.

2- NASA: NGC 1850.

3- NASA: Iberian Peninsula.

4- Christopher Nolan: Interstellar.

5- NASA: From the Earth to the Moon.

6- Hannah La Folette Ryan: Subway Hands.

7- Adams Evans: Heart Nebula.

8- NASA: Exploring the Antennae.

9- NASA: Crescent Moon from the International Space Station.

10- Petrichara.

11- Getty Images.

12- NASA: SMACS 0723.

13- Reuters

[world-beauty]

The Trifid Nebula from Hubble

Credits: AURA, STScI, F. Yusef-Zadeh, Northwestern U., ESA, NASA

[cooper-station]

Dwarf galaxy NGC 1569

[cooper-station]

Galaxies M81 ( left) and M82 (right) are locked in gravitational combat.

[cooper-station]

[mysteryofspacetime]

[blasteffect]

V838 Monocerotis !

This image, obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys is Hubble's latest view of an expanding halo of light around a distant star, named V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon).

The illumination of interstellar dust comes from the red supergiant star at the middle of the image, which gave off a flashbulb-like pulse of light two years ago.

V838 Mon is located about 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros, placing the star at the outer edge of our Milky Way galaxy.

NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) and ESA

[dessonges]

Hubble Views the Dawn of a Sun-like Star | Hubble Space Telescope

Looking like a glittering cosmic geode, a trio of dazzling stars blaze from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The triple-star system is made up of the variable star HP Tau, HP Tau G2, and HP Tau G3. HP Tau is known as a T Tauri star, a type of young variable star that hasn’t begun nuclear fusion yet but is beginning to evolve into a hydrogen-fueled star similar to our Sun. T Tauri stars tend to be younger than 10 million years old ― in comparison, our Sun is around 4.6 billion years old ― and are often found still swaddled in the clouds of dust and gas from which they formed. As with all variable stars, HP Tau’s brightness changes over time. T Tauri stars are known to have both periodic and random fluctuations in brightness. The random variations may be due to the chaotic nature of a developing young star, such as instabilities in the accretion disk of dust and gas around the star, material from that disk falling onto the star and being consumed, and flares on the star’s surface. The periodic changes may be due to giant sunspots rotating in and out of view. Curving around the stars, a cloud of gas and dust shines with their reflected light. Reflection nebulae do not emit visible light of their own, but shine as the light from nearby stars bounces off the gas and dust, like fog illuminated by the glow of a car’s headlights. HP Tau is located approximately 550 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Hubble studied HP Tau as part of an investigation into protoplanetary disks, the disks of material around stars that coalesce into planets over millions of years.

Credits : NASA, ESA, G. Duchene (Université de Grenoble I); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

[cooper-station]

We are quite literally star dust.