Astronomy Picture Of the Day for 2012 December 28:

NGC 6188 and NGC 6164




reference url for this APOD page: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121228.html

~ waves ~
p.s. Beautiful APOD pic for December 29th is also posted HERE.

this is gorgeous!

Thank you Waves. Isn't that beautiful!!! BF

Thank you Waves for bringing these two gems to this forum. BF

No problem at all Steve... Thanks for scouting them out for us!!!

~ waves ~

This is interesting. It's showing a solar flare.
2013 January 15: A Solar Ballet. BF

Hi Steve and everyone,

I can't post the pic, because it is actually video - if it is possible to embed it using vBulletin tags, i'm afraid i don't know how. However, here is direct youtube link for a large view in your browser:

A Solar Ballet (YouTube Video by NASA)

You will also find the video embedded at the APOD page, at the following URL:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130115.html

Explanation: Sometimes, the Sun itself seems to dance. On just this past New Year's Eve, for example, NASA's Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory spacecraft imaged an impressive prominence erupting from the Sun's surface. The dramatic explosion was captured in ultraviolet light in the above time lapse video covering four hours. Of particular interest is the tangled magnetic field that directs a type of solar ballet for the hot plasma as it falls back to the Sun. The scale of the disintegrating prominence is huge -- the entire Earth would easily fit under the flowing curtain of hot gas. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) expelling hot gas into the Solar System. The energy mechanism that creates a solar prominence is still a topic of research. As the Sun nears Solar Maximum this year, solar activity like eruptive prominences should be common.

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I'd never seen a solar flare "close up" like this... it looks like a red geyser to me! and you can see the "outer part" of the sun's gases too... pretty neat, but quite foreboding! ... wouldn't want to stick my finger in that!

~ waves ~

Thank you, Steve and Waves,

This is beautiful.

Mari

Here's a cool one.
2013 January 13:NGC 602 and Beyond

BF

This is gorgeous, Steve!
APOD: 2013 January 13 - NGC 602 and Beyond

Link to APOD page: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130113.html

Explanation: Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning Hubble image of the region. Fantastic ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic radiation and shock waves from NGC 602's massive young stars have eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster's center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in the sharp Hubble view. The background galaxies are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.

~ waves ~