The life-span of humans seems so brief compared to that of stars
What? Stars have a life span?
Yes, I know, that idea can be a bit unsettling at first. Maybe we tend to think of stars as permanent because they last such a long time.
Our star, the Sun, has been around for more than 4 billion years. Billion! What a number! It's a challenge to wrap a brain cell around such a hug number. A billion. Have you been alive a billion seconds? (Only of you're older than 31 years!)
Stars are born, they live, then they die. The Orion Nebula is one of those places in the universe where stars are born. When we look at it, it's like lokig into a crib with a bunch of babies, and the blanket has been kicked away in places. We can see the babies inside.
This image of the Orion Nebula (M42) was taken as part of my preparation for the Astronomy Labs I'm teaching this semester. It's a 20 second exposure with an open filter by the Prompt 1 telescope in Chile. The baby stars are hidden in the glow. Next, I'm going to try to manipulate the image to bring them out.
No comments:
Post a Comment