In the News: Stories in astronomy for the advancement of humanity that relate to
the central ideas, content, themes and purposes of the Soul Connection Network website.
A bunch of rowdy comets are colliding and kicking up dust around a dead
star, according to new observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.
The star lies at the center of the much-photographed cosmic starlet, the Helix Nebula,
a shimmering cloud of gas with a resemblance to a giant eye.
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected enough water vapor to fill the oceans on Earth five times inside the collapsing nest of a forming star system. Astronomers say the water vapor is pouring down from the system’s natal cloud and smacking into a dusty disk where planets are thought to form. The observations provide the first direct look at how water, an essential ingredient for life as we know it, begins to make its way into planets, possibly even rocky ones like our own.
“The total number of stars in the Universe is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.”
— Carl Sagan NOTE: Visit our spectacular collection of images of galaxies, nebulas, supernovas and star fields on the Beautiful Universe page in the GALLERIES of INSPIRATION.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
(The text below is today’s photo caption at the APOD website. Click the link above to see today’s picture.)
Stereo Space Station: Get out your red-blue glasses and float next to the International Space Station (ISS), planet Earth's largest artificial moon. This fun stereo view was constructed from parts of two separate images (S122-E-009880, S122-E-009893) and an additional background recorded as the shuttle orbiter Atlantis undocked from the ISS on February 18. Atlantis and the ISS were traveling over 7,500 meters per second at an altitude of about 350 kilometers. The shiny, 7 meter long module extending from the station at the lower right is ESA's Columbus Laboratory, delivered by Atlantis and installed by spacewalking astronauts. After a successful 13 day mission to the ISS, Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday.
