#blue giants

[zespaceblog]

Our galaxy and many of the galaxies we observe where star birth is still happening, contain a large number of blue supergiant stars.

While we know a fair amount about how stars are formed, and can even see them forming in many nebulas in our galaxy, what leads to a star being a giant blue main sequence star rather than a smaller longer lived A, F, G, K, M type star (our Sun is G type) is not wholly understood, however new work done at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias think the clue could be in the partners these stars have.

Most star systems are binary star systems, other stars that orbit alongside in various configurations. However, most O and B type stars, the blue giants, are mostly devoid of companions.

The team involve believe this is because during birth, binary partners ended up merging and forming these massive blue stars.

Blue giants are the rock stars of the universe, they live short and energetic lives, and often end in a supernova or even collapsing into stellar black holes. You'll not see these in elliptical galaxies where almost all star birth has ended, but even in the oldest parts of our galaxy, the central bulge, blue giants are being created, and look amazing against the more creamy colour of smaller M, K and G type stars that can live for 10+ billion years, and make their way to the centre still within their main sequence life.

Source:

Astronomers find evidence that blue supergiant stars can be formed by the merger of two stars

An international piece of research, led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has found clues to the nature of some of the brigh

[yoshimickster]

Why “Fort Rozz” is the most ANNOYING episode of Supergirl-

-TO ME. I know for a LOT of you it’s probably something involving Mon-El, but for me its this one for ONE big reason, and surprisingly its not due to the death of Livewire, my favorite character in the freaking show who I’d hope would get another role. Its because of...stupid science.

When they discover what star Fort Rozz is floating around, Mon-El points out-

Which...Kara...responds with-

...well...YOU SHOULD! The REASON all Kryptonian lifeforms gain abilities under a yellow sun, isn’t because of some BULLSHIT like its COLOR, its because the solar power of a red sun doesn’t NEARLY compare to that of a YELLOW sun. And for anyone who knows astronomy, a BLUE star is just as powerful. And YES-blue stars exist, they are some of the hottest stars of the universe and there is NO REASON...to make up stupid sci-fi bullcrap about them...like the next scene...

...*SNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFF*-NO! THEY DON’T! A.)Because Blue stars give plain old fashioned HEAT like every other god damned star in the universe and B.) Omicron radiation is the mother fucking radiation created by space engines in MOTHER FUCKING Star Trek! 

I...should’ve liked this episode more...but with killing off Livewire, messing with the lore, messing with science, and ripping off Star Trek....it will ALWAYS be the most annoying episode to me. MAYBE-if they called it like, a quantum star, or a null star, something that doesn’t actually fucking exist in fucking SCIENCE instead of Blue stars which DO! And what’s worse, in the comics blue stars give Kryptonians NEW superpowers, supercharging them! This was just a MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAJOR missed opportunity.

[zespaceblog]

The Iris Nebula

NGC 7023 is 1,300 light years from Earth in the constellation of Cepheus. At the centre a burning bright new blue star, likely formed only a couple of million years ago from the dust and gas of this very nebula. Now, it floods the area with the blue colouring which reflects from the dust particles, making this a reflective nebula.

Recent analysis of this nebula has found complex carbon chemistry, known as PAH's (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) which some astronomers have linked to the building blocks of life itself.

Either way, it is good evidence that complex chemistry and carbon based chemistry is going on in these nebulous environments, and maybe the embryonic solar system in it's birthing nebula had them too, which gathered in the accretion disks and formed part of the materials which ultimately seeded Earth.

[zespaceblog]

NGC 5367 and CG12

2050 light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus, lies a comet that isn't a comet.

The head is a beautiful example of dark nebula's having created beautiful new blue stars, some that now shine out against the dusty backdrop.

The entire structure gives the illusion of a comet, but it's a body of dust and gas, that just happens to have the densest area in one place, giving that look.

[zespaceblog]

Vela Supernova Remnant

Around 11,000 years ago, a star in the constellation of Vela suddenly brightened dramatically, lasted several months before dimming and vanishing from human collective knowledge until it's discovery in the last few centuries, although it was not connected with a specific pulsar until 1968.

At 800 light years form us, it's one of the closest supernova remnants known, and is thought to be sat amongst an far older supernova known as the Gum Nebula.

The Gum nebula is so large it's now only 400 light years from us on one edge, and 1,500 light years at the other.

In amongst the debris of the star, are clusters of large blue giant stars, who in time, will follow their lost cousin in a spectacular night show, and a beautiful nebula to return the elements to the cloud that bore them.

[zespaceblog]

NGC 612 and the Mystery Radio Emissions

NGC 612 is a lenticular galaxy almost 400 million light years from Earth in the constellation of Sculptor, and this image taken recently by Hubble, hopefully to assist in unravelling the mystery.

What we're not talking about here is a little green man mystery, rather, why this galaxy is behaving much like radio elliptical galaxies, something that is very rare amongst lenticular's of this kind.

The central bulge is 100 times brighter than the combined stars in the rest of the galaxy. Most Lenticular galaxies sport older and smaller stars like our own Sun and red dwarf's, with very little in the way of blue giant stars (which tend to be only a few million years old), however this galaxy bucks the trend, sporting a significant amount of stars 40-100 million years old.

There's a number of theories that may explain all these things, a recent merger (which in my view is most likely) with a spiral galaxy being most prominent.

Whatever the reason, the scientists engaged in trying to work this out, have brought this beautiful image of a 1 Trillion sun mass galaxy as it was 400 million years ago to you. Enjoy !

[zespaceblog]

Alpha Camelopardalis

Stars may appear fixed in our sky, but they are all moving, orbiting our galaxies centre with different speed's, trajectories, so much so that over time even the closest star will no longer be the closest star as our orbits move off in different paths.

Some stars however are moving in very different directions, often at much higher speeds, some even may eventually exit the galaxy disk and move out far beyond.

These high proper motion stars like Alpha Camelopardalis are the wild cards, shooting through our galaxy obeying only their own rules.

This star as it moves through a dense nebulous region has created a bow shockwave forming a bubble like structure around it as it ploughs through and illuminates the gas, as it's a type O9 star, a supergiant blue star, thought to have been thrown out of it's birth cluster through gravitational interactions with others.

It was thought that the star was not alone in it's travels, sporting a binary partner, however since it has been dismissed and assumed to be a single star.

[zespaceblog]

Long Exposure and the Pleiades

You've probably heard of the Seven Sisters, that blurry smudge of stars that you can out of cities count around 7 stars for, and it looks more like this.

It's the closest star cluster to Earth, a region where star formation out of a cloud of gas (nebula) has created a large number of stars, the brightest O and B types we see with the naked eye, but it does include stars of all groups, there are actually around 300 stars in that group of 7.

When you look closely as I posted a few days ago, you'll notice the reflective nebula that it sits in, now mostly depleted or escaped the gravitational clutches of the cluster, but still visible, adding a blue glow from the light reflected from those massive blue giant stars.

Long exposure brings out that reflective nebula, and the main image above is a beautiful one featured on today's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA).