APOD 4.4

About 60 light-years away in the constellation Corvus, two large galaxies collided.  Their large clouds of molecular gas and dust triggered many star formations.  This scene of cosmic wreckage spans about 500 light-years.  This view reveals new star clusters and matter far-flung from the scene of the collision by gravitational tidal forces.  The galaxy pair has been given the name The Antennae.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110429.html

Zooniverse

Today, April 28th, I worked on Galaxy Zoo Hubble for the class period. 

APOD 4.3

The Large Magellanic Cloud is an amazing sight that can be seen in the dark southern skies and is located in the constellation Dorado.  Its located 180,000 light-years away.  This picture also contains the tarantula nebula which is by far the LMCs largest star forming region.  The Large Magellanic Cloud is about 15,000 light-years across.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110426.html

Zooniverse

Today, April 26th, I worked on solar storm watch for a little while. 

APOD 4.2

This picture shows the Elephants Trunk Nebula.  Some say that parts of the glowing gas and dust clouds appear as monsters.  The entire nebula can be seen as the face of a monster.  But the only thing actually in this nebula is a bright young star that lies almost 3000 light-years away from us.  This nebula appears in a region of the sky equivalent to the width of 10 full moons.  Recently however, over 100 young stars have been discovered in the process of formation.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110425.html

Zooniverse

Today April 18th, I spent the class period working on Galaxy Zoo Hubble.

Zooniverse

Today April 12th, I spent the class period working on Galaxy Zoo Hubble classifying many different images as galaxies and identifying their qualities. 

APOD 4.1

This is an amazing image of NGC 2438, a planetary nebula.  These are formed by the gaseous clouds cast off by a dying sunlike star.  NGC 2438 seems to be located on the outskirts of M46, a star cluster.  The star from the planetary nebula seems to move faster then the other cluster stars.  This is a cool picture that shows a halo of atomic gas that is around 4.5 light-years away.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110407.html

Zooniverse

Today April 7th, I spent the period working on Solar Storm Watch.

Zooniverse

Today, April 5th, I spent the class period working on a few different projects but the majority of my time was spent on Moon Zoo.