The Horsehead Nebula in the constellation Orion. This is an example of a large area of cosmic dust and gas silhouetted against
a lighter portion of the sky. It just happens to look like a horse's head. The nebula is very, very small and very hard to see
even with a telescope. If there's light pollution in the sky, there's little hope of seeing it! Have you ever seen it?
Click on the image to enlarge it.
My photograph of the Orion Nebula (M-42),
a star-making cloud of cosmic dust and gas in Orion the hunter. It is a 45 minute exposure using a Celestron 8 in
October 1980.
YOU ARE MADE OF STARSTUFF! So am I. We all are. The atoms of some of the elements that comprise our bodies were created in the depths of stars. What you are is literally the stuff of the cosmos--atoms that have been recycled many times before they came together to make you. Stars are born, live out their lives, and die. And when some of them die, they die very violently--in a cosmic cataclysm called a supernova. Others die gently, slowly, quietly. Their remains--gas and dust--are strewn across the galaxies to be recycled into other stars, other planets, possibly even other life? Use the following links to help you become acquainted with stars, nebulae, and star clusters.
SETI Home Page.
The Death of a Star.
Class Schedule--Notes for Lectures 3, 6-16,
WET: The Whole Earth Telescope. This is a
worldwide network of telescopes used to study stellar seismology (oscillations of variable stars). One of the
telescopes in the network is the Iowa State University Erwin Fick Observatory Telescope near Ames.
Images of Messier Objects.
Messier Objects.
NGC (New General Catalog) Images on the Net.
Color Photographs from the Anglo-Australian
Observatory Telescopes, AAO.
The Web Nebulae.
Planetary Nebula Sampler.
Supernova.
Neutron Stars.
Radio Pulsar Resources.
The Globular Cluster M-13 in the constellation Hercules.
Galactic Cepheid Database.
CCD Images of Various Celestial Objects.
White Dwarfs.
Neutron Stars & Black Holes.
