June 29th 2012
Dark Clouds in Aquila
We've learned about the constellation Aquila, but we haven't learned that through and by Aquila, lies the Aquila Rift. The Aquila Rift is a formation of dusty molecular clouds, behind the Milky Way Galaxy. Scientists are searching for signs of star birth within these clouds, which are believed to contain molecules and remains from hundreds of thousands of dead stars. The search is looking up, because of energetic outflows that have been associated with young stars are being spotted within the clouds. These energetic outflows are massive shots of energy shooting out in space, believed to be signs of star birth like how our sun was created. One has been recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope, but not at once. Since we are so far away from the outflows, they hardly move at all to the eye. But from 1994 to 2008, the Hubble Space Telescope has taken pictures, which have been combined into a video located here, showing what these outflows look like. I had no idea that such massive changes could take place over such a great period of time, even given the speed at which light travels through space. I also didn't know that the constellation Aquila had the rift passing through it. In the picture, the bright star Altair, located in the constellation Aquila, can be located in the top right hand corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment