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20 de ago. de 2012

O ‘Olho de Deus’



This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the 

Helix nebula, a cosmic starlet often photographed by amateur astronomers

 for its vivid colors and eerie resemblance to a giant eye. The 

nebula, located about 700 light-years away in the constellation 

Aquarius, belongs to a class of objects called planetary nebulae. 

Discovered in the 18th century, these cosmic butterflies were named for 

their resemblance to gas-giant planets. Planetary nebulae are actually

 the remains of stars that once looked a lot like our sun. When 

sun-like stars die, they puff out their outer gaseous layers. These 

layers are heated by the hot core of the dead star, called a white 

dwarf, and shine with infrared and visible-light colors. Our own sun 

will blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies in about five billion 

years. In Spitzer's infrared view of the Helix nebula, the eye looks 

more like that of a green monster's. Infrared light from the outer 

gaseous layers is represented in blues and greens. The white dwarf is 

visible as a tiny white dot in the center of the picture. The red color 

in the middle of the eye denotes the final layers of gas blown out when 

the star died. The brighter red circle in the very center is the glow 

of a dusty disk circling the white dwarf (the disk itself is too small 

to be resolved). This dust, discovered by Spitzer's infrared 

heat-seeking vision, was most likely kicked up by comets that survived 

the death of their star. Before the star died, its comets and possibly 

planets would have orbited the star in an orderly fashion. But when the 

star blew off its outer layers, the icy bodies and outer planets would 

have been tossed about and into each other, resulting in an ongoing 

cosmic dust storm. Any inner planets in the system would have burned up 

or been swallowed as their dying star expanded. The Helix nebula is 

one of only a few dead-star systems in which evidence for comet 

survivors has been found. This image is made up of data from Spitzer's

 infrared array camera and multiband imaging photometer. Blue shows 

infrared light of 3.6 to 4.5 microns; green shows infrared light of 5.8 

to 8 microns; and red shows infrared light of 24 microns. A nebulosa Helix, conhecida entre os astrônomos como “o Olho de Deus” pelas suas semelhanças a um enorme olho (astronomicamente enorme mesmo), foi agora fotografada pelo Telescópio Espacial Spitzer em infravermelhos, e o resultado é esta fotografia espetacular. As cores, naturalmente, são geradas por computador, geralmente designadas ‘cores falsas’. Você pode obter uma cópia em alta resolução da imagem no site oficial do Telescópio Spitzer.
Este é o aspecto da nebulosa à luz visível:
eyeofgodHouve inclusive uma série de emails que afirmavam que este era mesmo o Olho de Deus e que estava realizando milagres. A imagem é realmente belíssima, não temos somente “um belo planeta”, mas também um universo cheio de belezas incríveis e ainda desconhecidas.
Confira abaixo uma animação feita simulando uma visão 3D da nebulosa Helix.


Fonte: http://miguellopes.wordpress.com