What did Hubble see on your birthday?

Mustrum_Ridcully · Apr 15, 2020

Aeson said:
I assume you put in August as the month? 2002 was the year they picked for my birth date. I guess it's a random year. I wonder if at a later time you try it, a new year and image is chosen.

No, I did not - and since you can't pick a year, I didn't expect it to pick the right year - but I did expect it to hit the right month!

Lidgar · Apr 15, 2020

Apparently they found a portal to Avernus on my birthday...

Son of the Serpent · Apr 15, 2020

Lidgar said:
Apparently they found a portal to Avernus on my birthday...

View attachment 121104

What on earth? (Well...literally not on earth, but still). Im not sure whether that is some kind of nebula with a star or some stars at the center of it or a galaxy, but regardless of which that is a most unusual formation.

There is a text entry with each picture. What did your's say?

Theo R Cwithin · Apr 15, 2020

@Son of the Serpent It's a proto-planetary nebula-- a dying star shedding its atmosphere-- called the Red Rectangle.

Hubble's sharp pictures show that the Red Rectangle is not really rectangular, but has an overall X-shaped structure, which the astronomers involved in the study interpret as arising from outflows of gas and dust from the star in the center. The outflows are ejected from the star in two opposing directions, producing a shape like two ice-cream cones touching at their tips. Also remarkable are straight features that appear like rungs on a ladder, making the Red Rectangle look similar to a spider web, a shape unlike that of any other known nebula in the sky. These rungs may have arisen in episodes of mass ejection from the star occurring every few hundred years. They could represent a series of nested, expanding structures similar in shape to wine glasses, seen exactly edge-on so that their rims appear as straight lines from our vantage point.

Lidgar · Apr 15, 2020

Theo R Cwithin said:
@Son of the Serpent It's a proto-planetary nebula-- a dying star shedding its atmosphere-- called the Red Rectangle.

Yep, thanks Theo! And in other words, a portal to Avernus...

Son of the Serpent · Apr 15, 2020

Theo R Cwithin said:
@Son of the Serpent It's a proto-planetary nebula-- a dying star shedding its atmosphere-- called the Red Rectangle.

Thx

Fascinating

Theo R Cwithin · Apr 15, 2020

Lidgar said:
Yep, thanks Theo!

Hehe. Planetary nebulae are favorites of mine, lol.

What did Hubble see on your birthday?

Mustrum_Ridcully

Hero

Lidgar

Gongfarmer

Son of the Serpent

Pupil

Theo R Cwithin

I cast "Baconstorm!"