The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has once again left its followers stunned with a picture of the Lagoon Nebula. The massive star at the centre of the image is 200,000 times brighter than the sun, according to the American space agency.
The Lagoon Nebula is located 4,000 light-years away and is visible in binoculars as a smudge of light with a bright core. According to NASA, the image of the nebula was taken by the Hubble Telescope on its 28th anniversary.
The giant star in the middle of the photo, called Herschel 36, “is still young in a cosmic sense, roughly 1 million years old, and is throwing off its natal cocoon of material – ionized gasses like hydrogen and nitrogen”, according to the caption of the post. The red in the photo symbolises hydrogen, while the green colour denotes nitrogen.
View the photo here:
The image received over 1.3 million likes in two days. Several users also posted comments on the stunning imagery, including the Canadian Space Agency, which wrote “Woweeee” followed by a heart-eyed emoji.
According to NASA, the Herschel 36 is 32 times bigger than our Sun, with a temperature of 40,000 degrees Kelvin. The star, which is nearly nine times the Sun’s diameter, will live for another five million years due to its mass. NASA’s tribute to Greek composer Vangelis after news of the 79-year-old’s demise broke today has also grabbed eyeballs.
The space agency shared a video of its Juno mission with the words “Today, we honor the life of a star of our own. Vangelis created the soundtracks to some of our missions, finding synergy in music and space.”
View the clip here:
The almost four-minute fly-by animation video featured music by Vangelis and animation by Koji Kuramura, Gerald Eichstädt and Mike Stetson. The clip featured the Juno mission’s 34th flyby of Jupiter, which took place on 7 June last year. The fly-by video was from the point of view of a “starship captain” and has garnered over six lakh views.
What are your thoughts on NASA’s posts?
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