Bethany Menard

Instructor: Victor Gaetan

Astronomy e-Portfolio
Fall Semester, 2014

08/21/14 - Center of the Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula is about 5,000 light years distant

toward the constellation Sagittarius. The bright star
on the left is called Herschel 36, and provides the
light for this photo. Walls of dust redden and obscure
the other stars in this picture, while extreme
temperature differences between the gasses and
stars create swirling winds, which may be responsible
for creating funnel clouds. This was taken by the
Hubble telescope and spans about 5 light years
across.

M31 : The Andromeda Galaxy

Andromeda is the nearest galaxy to

the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers
believe the Milky Way looks very
similar to Andromeda. Light from
Andromeda takes about 2 million
years to reach earth, and is lit by the
millions of stars composing it. The
larger, brighter stars are part of the
Milky Way, not Andromeda, and are
much closer to earth.

08/28/14 - Ou4: A Giant Squid Nebula

This image is comprised of several pictures taken separately, then

placed together to form a complete picture of the Squid Nebula. The
bipolar shape and emissions coming from it indicate that this is a
planetary nebula, which is a dying sun-like star. While the actual
distance and origin are unknown, this nebula is believed to be 2300
light years away and is nearly 50 light years across.

Saturns Swirling Cloudscape

This infrared shot of Saturns North Pole was taken by

Cassini spacecrafts wide angle camera. It shows the
hexagon, which is a large, greenish, six-sided jet stream.
The large red spot at the center is a hurricane which
measures approximately 2,000 km wide. The clouds at
the outer edge of the hurricane blow at over 500 km/hr.
The bright blue rings in the upper right corner are
Saturns rings.

09/04/2014 - Moonbow Beach

This picture was taken in the early
morning on Molokai Beach, Hawaii,
17 June, 2013. The rainbow
(moonbow) is produced as raindrops
reflect moonlight from the direction
opposite the moon. The moon is
positioned behind the photographer,
and is just a few days past its full
phase.

The Milky Way Near the Southern Cross

Taken over La Frontera, Chile, this

picture includes the bright yellow
star, Gamma Crucis at the top right. If
a line is drawn from Gamma Crucis to
the lower left and crosses through
the blue star at the bottom (called
Alpha Crucis), the line will point
straight to the South Pole. Alpha
Centauri is the 3rd brightest star in
the sky, and is the bright star on the
bottom left of the picture. Alpha
Centauri is also the closest star to the
sun, being only 4.3 light years away.

09/11/2014 - A Perseid Below

Taken from the International Space

Station, Ron Garan took this pic of a
Perseid Meteor looking down at earth.
The remaining dust from the SwiftTuttle comet travel into earths
atmosphere at about 60km/sec at
about 100 km above the earths
atmosphere. The greenish line above
the curvature of the earth is the
earths atmosphere, and the star in
the background above the meteor is
Arcturus.

Rings Around the Ring Nebula

This image combines 3 different types of images

narrowband hydrogen image, infrared light
emission, and visible light emission, and the nebula
can be seen through a small telescope. The central
ring is about 1 light-year across. The different
colored rings surrounding the nebula are glowing
gas from the dying star. The Ring Nebula is about
2000 light-years away.

09/18/2014 - The Wizard Nebula

The Wizard Nebula is a natal cloud of interstellar gas,
containing an open star cluster. Its about 8000 light
years away, near the constellation of Cepheus. This
picture was taken with a telescope and camera, and was
recorded with narrowband filters. As with most objects in
space, it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye.

The Dumbbell Nebula

This was discovered in 1764 by Charles Messier.
This is a planetary nebula, the sasme type of
nebula as twhat our sun will become when fusion
in its inner core stops. Its one of the brightest
nebulae in the sky. It takes light from this nebula
about 1000 years to reach the earth.

September 25, 2014 The Butterfly Cluster

This cluster of mostly blue stars resembles a

butterfly. Most of the stars in the cluster are
about 100 million years old. Its located near
the constellation Scorpius, and can be seen
with binoculars.

Messier 20 & 21
This is the Trifid Nebula and the
Messier star cluster, located in the
constellation of Sagittarius. Its about
40 light years across and is one of the
youngest nebulae, being an estimated
300,000 years old. Dust is obscuring the
nebula. It has new and developing stars in
its dust and clouds.

October 02, 2014 A Sagittarius Starscape

This is another discovery of Charles

Messiers. The eagle on the right and the
swan in the center are the brightest star
forming regions. These stars are
between 2000-5000 light years away,
and have a reddish glow due the amount
of hydrogen. The area is obscured by
interstellar dust.

Supernova Remnant Puppis A

This picture is based on the most complete X=ray data to
date. And infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope.
The red and green and warm dust, while the brighter colors
at the top are shocked gas and warm dust have combined.
This is located 7000 light years from earth, and is about
180light years wide. Light from the initial supernova would
have reached the earth about 3700 years ago.

October 09, 2014 - Aurora Borealis and Milky Way Over Sweden

There are two bands of color in this picture over

Ostersund, Sweden. The auroras were caused by the
sun expelling plasma clouds into the solar system a
few days before, which in turn, affects the
magnetosphere of the earth. Just above the aurora
borealis is the central band of the Milky Way.

NGC 206 and the Star Clouds of Andromeda

This spiral galaxy is located in the

southwestern extent off Andromedas disc. In
the top center portion if the picture, and is 20
million light years away. NGC 206 is fairly
young, as indicated by the blue stars within it.
Its youngest stars are less than 10 million
years old. It spans about 4000 light years
across.

October 16, 2014 The Bubble Nebula

The Bubble Nebula and the cloud complex

surrounding it are located near the
constellation Cassiopeia. The star in the
center left area of the bubble is an O star,
which is far hotter and larger than the sun.
A strong stellar wind and intense radiation
from the O star created this stunning scene.
Hydrogen and oxygen emissions were used
to create the red and blue colors, and were
combined to create the greenish area. The
Bubble Nebula is about 11,000 light years
away.

Two Black Holes Dancing in

3C 75
This picture is a combination of x-ray
(blue) and radio (pink) images. These
two black holes are co-orbiting, and are
bound together in a binary system, and
most likely share a common speed of
about 1200km/sec. As they reach their
final stage of completely merging, they
will create intense gravitational waves.
They are around 300 million light years
away in the Abell 400 galaxy.

October 23, 2014 Melotte 15 in the Heart

This is an image of what is
commonly known as the Heart
Nebula. This picture is a
combination pf narrowband and
broadband images, and spans about
30 light years. Its in the
constellation Cassiopeia, about
7000 light years from earth. The
dust clouds were shaped by stellar
winds and radiation from massive
newborn stars in the nebula.

Galaxies on Pegasus

This picture was taken at the northern edge of

the Pegasus constellation. NGC 7331 is the
bright spiral galaxy located in the upper right of
the picture. To the lower left, there are 5
galaxies known as Stephens Quintet. This is a
multiple galaxy collision.

October 30, 2014 - AR 2192: Giant on the Sun

AR 2192 is a giant sun spot on our sun,
roughly the size of Jupiter. It looks darker
than the rest of the sun because it is cooler
than the surrounding area. The region has
twisted magnetic fields which produce
massive explosions and solar flares.

Moons at Opposition
This picture was taken over Los Gatos, CA, during a full
lunar eclipse. Uranus can be seen in the bottom right
corner of the picture, and its moons are also visible as
faint pinpricks of light closely orbiting it.

November 6, 2014 The Day After Mars

The comet Siding Springs tail can be

seen to the upper right of Mars. The
comet has passed within 87,000 miles
of Mars. Although it was fairly close, it
had no impact on Mars itself. The blue
star on the right is 51 Ophiuchi.

Titan Beyond the Rings

This picture was taken by the robotic

Cassini spacecraft. Cassini captured
Saturns A and F rings stretching in front of
Titan, one of Saturns moons, which is the
small whitish dot. Titan is surrounded by
clouds. The A ring is about 122,000 km
from Saturns surface; the dark area is
called the Roche division, and is 137,000
km from Saturns surface; and the F ring is
140,000 km from the surface.

November 13, 2014 The Cave Nebula

This image of the Cave Nebula was

created by narrowband filters, which
tracked the glow of ionized sulfur,
hydrogen, and oxygen. This nebula is
located near the constellation
Cepheus. The bright edge of ionized
interstellar gas is energized by
radiation from several stars, but
mainly by the bright star in the top
center of the picture.

The Polar Ring Galaxy

The Polar Ring Galaxy has a

unique, rare shape. It has an
extensive population of stars,
planets, and dust which orbit
perpendicular to the plane of the
galactic disk. Its located in the
constellation Pisces, and is about
20 million light years away. The
ring spans over 50,000 light years.

November 20, 2014 The Tulip Nebula

The Tulip Nebula is approximately 8,000 light years away,
and 70 light years across. The red, green, and blue colors
are from ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. The
bright blue star near the center of the tulip provides
ultraviolet radiation, which lights up the Tulip Nebula.

Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula

This is an infrared picture taken by NASAs WISE
satellite. It gets its name from the two dense
streamers of material in the center of the nebula,
which are indicative of continued star formation.
This nebula is about 12,000 light years away, in
the constellation Auriga. The glowing gas cloud is
over 100 light years across, and was shaped by
stellar winds and radiation.

November 27, 2014 Dark Nebula in Cygnus

This picture was taken with a telescope and

a camera. The Dark Nebula is in the center
of this picture, and is about 70 light years
across, and 2,000 light years away. The Dark
Nebula Is part of a larger group of dusty
molecular clouds, which are sometimes
called the Northern Coalsack. The star in the
inset on the bottom right of the picture is a
sun-like star in the early stages of formation.

The Map of Dione

Dione is one of Saturns mid-sized,

icy moons, and is located in
Saturns E-ring. This cylindrical
projection image was created
using 10 years of data collected by
the Cassini spacecraft. Diones
leading hemisphere looks shiny
due to the coating of icy material
it acquires from the E-ring.