M97: The Owl Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Keith Quattrocchi
Posted on 05/15/2009 5:59:09 AM PDT by sig226
Explanation: The Owl Nebula is perched in the sky about 2,600 light-years away toward the bottom of the Big Dipper's bowl. Also cataloged as M97, the 97th object in Messier's well-known list, its round shape along with the placement of two large, dark "eyes" do suggest the face of a staring owl. One of the fainter objects in Messier's catalog, the Owl Nebula is a planetary nebula, the glowing gaseous envelope shed by a dying sun-like star as it runs out of nuclear fuel. In fact, the Owl Nebula offers an example of the fate of our Sun as it runs out of fuel in another 5 billion years. As we see it, the nebula spans over 2 light-years making it roughly 2,000 times the size of Solar System. Beautiful to look at, this color image shows impressive details within the cosmic owl. The composite includes images made through narrow-band filters for a total of 24 hours of exposure time.
it is in the London paper "the sun" and is incredible! taken by some guy in florida.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2431157.ece
Kinda looks like Kenny with a green jacket.
LOL
For some reason that pic looks a little Star Trekkie (like something they would have used in the original show—like they would be approached by it in their big screen thingie). And you would hear that music...duuuuuuduuu duuuuuuuudu.....
At least that’s what popped into my head.
Wowwww! Thanks for the link.
More neat pics and story on that site.
First, McCoy has to yell, “Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a vacuum cleaner!”
LOL
Gosh I miss Bones and Scotty!
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