ζ Ophiuchi in Infrared!
This infrared image, obtained by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope on Dec. 24, 2012, shows the giant star Zeta Ophiuchi. Zeta Ophiuchi is a young, large and hot star located around 370 light-years away The star is traveling at a snappy pace of about 54,000 mph (24 kilometers per second), fast enough to break the sound barrier in the surrounding interstellar material. Because of this motion, it creates a spectacular bow shock ahead of its direction of travel (to the left). The structure is analogous to the ripples that precede the bow of a ship as it moves through the water, or the sonic boom of an airplane hitting supersonic speeds.
Just too beautiful a shot to pass up!
Spectacular!
Comment on February 22, 2013 @ 12:49 pm
Beauty. Going there.
In my mind. Sigh.
‘Sky high-flying from the top of the stairs
crashes to the floor stands up and he swears
I’m tired of the earth pulling down on me
I’m gonna build a machine to repeal the gravity’
Make it so, Harbor, make it so.
Comment on February 22, 2013 @ 1:33 pm
Sky, two things: 1) In all of the extraordinary posts that have ever been on this site I think you have just found the most incredibly beautiful image, and 2) I think you might be the first to insert a Greek character into a title, and a suitably beautiful one at that.
I want a wall size version of that image.
Comment on February 22, 2013 @ 4:01 pm
Maybe I’m a little slow, but ζ Ophiuchi is framed by its own gorgeous near-letter ζ.
Comment on February 22, 2013 @ 4:38 pm
re #3: I was going through a slide show @ nbcnews.com and it stopped me in my tracks. I found the original full-size NASA Spitzer image HERE. It’s 4015 x 3637 so you could blow it up into a nice poster. Enjoy! I like the Greek alphabet!
re #4: that’s actually the bow shock wave of the star…
Comment on February 22, 2013 @ 6:56 pm
Thanks Sky – it’s gorgeous!!
Comment on February 23, 2013 @ 11:07 am