 "Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all you shining stars. Praise Him, you highest heavens…" –Psalm 148: 3-4a
Having always been fascinated by outer space (my favorite toy as a child was the "Astronaut GI Joe" with the lunar landing module) articles, and especially striking images from outside our familiar atmosphere often pique my interest.
Such is the case when I stumbled upon a recent Space.com report about an image taken by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory which captured a remarkable and somewhat haunting view that closely resembles an immense hand reaching toward a light. (Photo Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/P)
To view this image, CLICK HERE:
The image is actually that of PSR B1509-58, a pulsar (dying star) and a nebula. Lest you begin picturing the Starship Enterprise trapped inside a glowing web of radiation, I'll try to give a clearer picture of the definition of these cosmic terms.
Pulsars, though they are dying stars, are still powerful and "spin like crazy," according to the report, as they light up their immediate surroundings. A nebula is defined by Wikipedia as "an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma."
The factors thought to be making up the image, the pulsar and a nebula, are excited by magnetic fields—15 times stronger than Earth's—which produce a "wind" of electrons and ions away from the dying star and through the nebula, magnitizing it. This produces the glowing, wispy portrait-in-space.
To view other striking nebula images, CLICK HERE.
Used by permission www.breakingchristiannews.com / Staff – Space.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090405/sc_space/cosmichandreachesforthelight
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