Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Wondering About Holes in the Sky.



Holes in the sky??  You may say that you have never seen any holes in the sky and that I am sounding like a bad Sci-Fi movie and alien monsters will be coming through these holes to attack and take over Earth and feed off of all living things and. . . . NO! THAT IS NOT WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!!


So, what am I talking about?  I am talking about what appear to be holes but what are actually "Dark Nebulae".  Doesn't this picture look like a hole in the star filled sky?


Following are five more examples of dark nebula.  The first one below looks to me exactly what it is, a cloud of gas.  It would be hard to tell exactly what the other four are.  You have to admit that they are all beautiful and unique.



















I have saved the dark nebula (or absorption nebula) that seems to be everybody's favorite and most people do recognize it as the Horse Head Nebula.  It does look like what its name describes:  










Well, there you have it, a peek into, but not through, the holes in the sky.  Now maybe you ought to go out on the next clear night and look up, the sky is a beautiful place even without a telescope, but the treasures you find with large telescopes always amazes me and I am sure it will amaze you, too.  Now have a good day and a good night, too, you hear?

6 comments:

  1. I just don't have that kind of sky visible on the outskirts of a city, although I'm always surprised at how much I can see. So is a dark nebula similar to a black hole? If not, then what the heck is it?

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    1. I also live in a light polluted area just north of Houston. That is why I purchased such a large aperture telescope. My big one has a sixteen inch diameter mirror.

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  2. I am unable to wrap my mind around the number of stars represented in these pictures.
    I never really thought about it until I saw the Hubble Ultra Deep photo and the 10,000 galaxies is showed. Galaxies!
    I'm unable to deal with the voids & never really though about them, thanks!

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    1. I don't believe any human brain has the capacity to wrap around the number of stars there are in the universe. In fact, we are not really sure just how big our universe is and how many universes may also exist. Just call me dumb, that is why I keep wondering in wonder.

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