The Carina Nebula Since the beginning of time, man has looked up to the stars and reveled in its beauty, believing that only gods can be responsible for creating such a beautiful night time sky. For centuries humans have grappled with questions relating to the sky and our place as humans in the cosmos. In today’s modern age, it seems that most of us (myself included) forget to look up and appreciate nature’s mysterious beauty. For this reason, I chose the most beautiful and mysterious place in the sky to do my research on, the Carina Nebula. The Carina Nebula takes up a vast amount of space and is home to thousands of stars that are both young and old that can offer new information to us about stars. This nebula not only holds secrets that still puzzle astronomers to this day, but also offers us answers that we thought we might have never gotten. The first thing you might be wondering is, what exactly is a nebula? Well according to Franknoi, a nebula is “A cloud of interstellar gas and dust that can be seen to glow with visible light or invisible light” (Franknoi 532). The Carina Nebula was formed approximately 3 million years ago in the Southern region of the Milky Way in the Carina constellation. It is located roughly 7,500 light years away from earth, which is relatively close in special terms, and even bright enough to be seen from south of the earth’s equator. It was discovered by French astronomer, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, in 1751 from the Cape of Good Hope in
This nebula is about 1/3 of a light-year thick, and five light-years across. Most nebulae are shaped are more sphere shaped and most commonly a butterfly shape. Abella 39 is one extremely rare cases in which the geometry is much simpler. This star, unlike its usual common shape is in the form of a cat eye. This star is off center in the constellation about one tenth of a light-year.
Stars are the most recognized astronomical object in space and they represent the building blocks of galaxies. Stars distribute elements such as: carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. A star develops from a cloud of hydrogen and helium, the dust clouds that are scattered throughout galaxies. An example of a dust cloud is the Orion Nebula. The gas and dust begin to collapse from its own gravitational pull. As the cloud collapses, the middle gets hotter. This is known as a prostar. A dense and hot core forms which begins to collect dust and gas. All this material may not end up as a part of the star but can become planets, asteroids, comets, or remain dust. A star about the size of our sun can up to 50 million years to mature. The smallest stars are
Curtis correctly noted that spectral lines could be seen within the spiral nebulae, and that they were generally consistent with the nebulae in the form of large assembled star clusters. These clusters supported Curtis's argument that these were in fact stellar systems, which are comparable to our Milky Way
A second key detail from the debate is the discovering of what nebulae really are and where they are located as well. This is important because it allows us
Vera Cooper Rubin was born July 23, 1928 in Philadelphia, PA. Her father was Philip Cooper, an electrical engineer, and her mother Rose. She first developed an interest in astronomy at the age of 10 while stargazing from her home in Washington D.C. Her father encouraged her to follow her dreams and took her to amateur astronomer meetings. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Vassar University in 1948 of which she was the only astronomy major that year. Later she earned her master’s from Cornell in 1950 with her masters’ thesis was controversial and centered around the possibility of bulk rotation by looking for “sideways” motion of galaxies. She finally got her Ph.D. from Georgetown University in 1954. Her doctoral
Parenago 1802, a member of the ∼1 Myr Orion Nebula Cluster, is a double-lined, detached eclipsing binary in a 4.674 d orbit, with equal-mass components (M2/M1=0.985±0.029). Here we present extensive V IC JHKS light curves spanning ∼15 yr, as well as a Keck/HIRES optical spectrum. The light curves evince a third light source that is variable with a period of 0.73 d, and is also manifested in the high-resolution spectrum, strongly indicating the presence of a third star in the system, probably a rapidly rotating classical T Tauri star. We incorporate this third light into our radial velocity and light curve modeling of the eclipsing pair, measuring accurate masses (M1=0.391±0.032, M2=0.385±0.032 M⊙), radii (R1=1.73±0.02, R2=1.62±0.02 R⊙), and temperature ratio (Teff,1/Teff,2=1.0924±0.0017). Thus the radii of the eclipsing stars differ by 6.9±0.8%, the temperatures differ by 9.2±0.2%, and consequently the luminosities differ by 62±3%, despite having masses equal to within 3%. This could be indicative of an age difference of ∼ 3 × 105 yr between the two eclipsing stars, perhaps a vestige of the binary formation history. We find that the eclipsing pair is in an orbit that has not yet fully circularized,
Since I was a child, I would marvel at the night sky- separating stars, planets, galaxies, and even the once-in-a-while helicopter from each other. Space had fascinated my soul, which subjects are rarely able to do in one’s life. The love I have for the universe came from a place within that I was never able to identify, that is, until I found a way to capture my need to learn more, through the NASA SEES Summer Internship.
4.) Brightness and Spectra of the Nebulae - Shapely had pointed out that the brightness and colors that were measured of a spiral nebula far away. While Curtis didn't say anything about this, he did note that the lines he observed of spiral nebulae were mostly made out of stars. This earned both men a point
The cloud contracted under its own gravity and our proto-Sun formed in the hot dense center. The remainder of the cloud formed a swirling disk call the solar nebula. A solar nebula is a gaseous cloud. The nebular hypothesis has become the theory of the origin of our solar system. We can relate this to the vermiculite solar nebula lab. These are related because in the lab it showed us how gravity pulled most of the materials toward the center of the water which the water was representing gravity and the vermiculite that got pulled to the center was modeling the heavier more dense planets. The vermiculite that was pushed away from the center represented lighter less dense
The Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) is found in the constellation, Monoceros. This dazzling nebula is part of a much larger star-forming region, called the Christmas Tree Cluster. Both, fall under the name of NGC 2264.
The Orion Nebula contains one of the brightest star clusters in the night sky. With a magnitude of 4, this nebula is easily visible from the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months. It is surprising, therefore, that this region was not documented until 1610 by a French lawyer named Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. On March 4, 1769, Charles Messier inducted the Orion Nebula, M42, into his list of stellar objects. Then, in 1771, Messier released his list of objects for its first publication in Memoires de l'Academie.1
Original creation of the earth nebular hypothesis vs. six-day creation is the topic chosen for this article. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the difference between nebular hypothesis and the six day creation. The comparison is between old-earth and young-earth viewpoints on the original creation. Both views come from believers who are merely seeking truth and trying to understand God’s message.
The Carina Nebula is located in the Milky Way Galaxy in the constellation Carina in the Carina-Sagittarius Arm. It is sometimes referred to as the Eta Argus, referencing the former constellation, Argo Navis, which represented Jason and the Argonauts. It has been estimated at around 7500 ly (light-years) from earth. It was discovered in 1751-52 by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille and was later found to be one of the largest emission stars in the galaxy. Its entire mass is around 900,000 solar masses which is equivalent to 270 million pounds. It contains several open clusters of stars along with many O-type stars. It used to contain thousands of more stars than it does today, but many self-destructed. It is home to the Trumpler 14 and Trumpler 16
The Helix Nebula also known as The Helix, NGC 7293, God’s Eye, and the Eye of Sauron, is a planetary nebula. It is around 10,000 years old. It is approximately 650 light-years from Earth and it spans about 2.5 to 3 light-years across. This intricately shaped planetary nebula is also located in the constellation of Aquarius. The Helix is a very interesting, complex planetary nebula to understand. Scientists
A galaxy, also called a nebula, consists of billions of stars, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter which are all bound to form a massive cloud in which we live in. Although it cannot be very well explained, dark matter makes up at least 90% of a galaxy’s mass.