Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day

Click on image to enlarge
Long Stem Rosette
Credit & Copyright: Adam Block (Caelum Observatory) and
Tim Puckett

Explanation: The Rosette Nebula (aka NGC 2237) is not the only cosmic cloud of gas and dust to evoke the imagery of flowers. But it is the one most often suggested as a suitable astronomy image for Valentine's Day. Of the many excellent Rosette Nebula pictures submitted to APOD editors, this view seemed most appropriate, with a long stem of glowing hydrogen gas in the region included in the composition. At the edge of a large molecular cloud in Monoceros, some 5,000 light years away, the petals of this rose are actually a stellar nursery whose lovely, symmetric shape is sculpted by the winds and radiation from its central cluster of hot young stars. The stars in the energetic cluster, cataloged as NGC 2244, are only a few million years old, while the central cavity in the Rosette Nebula is about 50 light-years in diameter. Happy Valentine's Day!

6 comments:

John said...

Perfect Valentine Friend

If I could create the perfect friend,
One of my own design,
A friend to be my companion,
A friend for a Valentine,

I’d build her with a giving heart
Filled with kindness, too,
A friend who’s also lots of fun,
But I've already got one--you!

By Joanna Fuchs

Spirula said...

OT, but I know all of us will be asking will he survive this time?

(Finally, Jesus is truly electrifying.)

Stardust said...

cole...thanks so much for the sweet poem, cole! Happy Valentine's Day to you, friend!

Hubby took me to Olive Garden for soup and salad lunch and bought me socks at Filene's Basement...LOL!

Stardust said...

spirula, thanks for that story...LOL...Jesus is electrifying. LOL. Of course it's built to withstand crap like this, but the god believers will say that God protected the statue along with the a hundred billion and one other things attached to his puppet strings.

Spirula said...

but the god believers will say that God protected the statue

And my retort to them would be, "My god, Thor, kicked your god-boy's ass. I have proof."

tina FCD said...

Wow! That's pretty!