Cosmic Father's Day - BellaOnline Forums

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What tie would you give a cosmic father? What food would you serve him? Where might he find challenging mountaineering, make an astounding golf shot or get up an interstellar soccer game?

Cosmic Father's Day

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The Crab Nebula (M1) is the remnant of a supernova that was first observed by Chinese astronomers in 1054. William Parsons (Lord Rosse) drew what he saw through his 36-inch telescope, and thought it looked like a crab. This is how the nebula got its name. It's in the constellation Taurus, not Cancer the Crab.

Personally, given that drawing, I'd have named it the Pineapple Nebula. What about you? People are more familiar with the Hubble Space Telescope image of the nebula.

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The Bow Tie Nebula - also known as the Boomerang Nebula - is a young planetary nebula 5000 light years away in the constellation Centaurus.

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The Boomerang Nebula is one of the Universe's peculiar places. In 1995, using the 15-metre Swedish ESO Submillimetre Telescope in Chile, astronomers Sahai and Nyman revealed that it is the coldest place in the Universe found so far. With a temperature of -272C, it is only 1 degree warmer than absolute zero (the lowest limit for all temperatures). Even the -270C background glow from the Big Bang is warmer than this nebula. It is the only object found so far that has a temperature lower than the background radiation.

[Source: Wikipedia]

The Pancake Galaxy (ESO 373-8) is 13,000 light years away in the constellation Scorpius. It's a probable yellow hypergiant star which has used up all of its hydrogen fuel, and been burning heavier elements.

The Fried Egg Nebula (IRAS 17163-3907) is 25 million light years away in the constellation Antlia. It's a spiral galaxy that we see edge on.