APOD 2.4

 

Another day another APOD. Today I chose Sisters of the Dust Sky. This is a beautiful image of the Seven Sisters star cluster in the top left, which is extremely well know for its blue output, and the reflection nebula behind it. Something I have always wondered is just how close a star cluster can get. Just how close do all these stars get to each other, and how does it look when they collide? Well this APOD did not answer these questions, but it did talk of the massive dust cloud that encases the cluster. The cluster is sore of a beacon of hope in the cloud, sucking up large amounts of dust, as seen in a larger picture of the star cluster itself. LBN 777 can be seen in the middle of the photo, but is not extremely interesting from what I read. It actually seems to be just weirdly formed dust. Another APOD, another beautiful sight.

APOD 2.3

Thin Galaxy Is Thin

Quite an awesome sight to behold, this thin galaxy, also named NGC 4452, this galaxy is just another awesome reminder of the amazing range of objects in our night sky. This picture was taken by Hubble, and it was taken when the galaxy was nearly on edge. The whole galaxy extends 35,000 light years end to end. This is absolutely astonishing to me. How anything can be so dang large, and still have that much depth and detail. It is also amazing that it emits so much light, which is partially due to its low dust levels. At the center of the galaxy must be an enumerable amount of stars, and emits this really strong glow, that I personally even find hard to look at on a computer screen. The awesome thing about this picture thought is the galaxy's proximity to other galaxies. Maybe many thousands or millions of light years away, hundreds of galaxies can be seen in the background, some of which might even be looking back at us.

APOD 2.2

Sunset from the ISS

What a beautiful sight, and a great way to see why our sky is the colors it becomes. The Troposphere during sunset becomes a orange/yellow color. The Troposphere is where the majority of Earth's clouds can be found. It is what creates the majority of the beautiful colors we see during sunset. The Stratosphere is a light blue band, that when mixed with the troposphere creates all the pink colors. It is a thin layer, and contains some hefty bacteria. The Stratosphere is also where airplanes fly, I guess I might know this if I had ridden in a plane more than once... Above the Stratosphere are many other upper atmospheric layers which are thin and eventually become the emptiness of space. The APOD also stated that sunset for the ISS is no big deal because they can see it up to 16 times a day.