GIANT SPACE HAND!

This is a picture of a giant space hand....I kid you not! Actually, I am kidding. HAHA, gotcha! This is really the nebula PSR B1509-58, which is created from a pulsar. But we all know pulsars are neutron stars that just so happen to be in our line of sight. What causes the pulses of high energy is a misalignment of the rotation axis and the magnetic axis (according to NASA and I'm one to believe they get their definitions right). This pulsar spins SEVEN times a second! And it's twelve miles across. It may be small but don't underestimate its POWAH!! That's "power" but said in an epic voice.

Strong magnetic fields, 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, are thought to be involved, too. The combination drives an energetic wind of electrons and ions away from the dying star. As the electrons move through the magnetized nebula, they radiate away their energy as X-rays.

The red stuff is a neighboring gas cloud. I think it looks like a twinkie. A GIANT SPACE TWINKIE! Which is good. It matches the giant space hand. I dare you to check out the article! http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090405/sc_space/cosmichandreachesforthelight

Lulin the Comet is Coming!!!!

February 24 is a VERY special day! Lulin the Comet will be visible to the naked eye.... and it's GREEN! Of course, the only reason it's green is because of its noxious atmosphere which oh so happens to be comprised of cyanogen and diatomic carbon gases. Ooooo, that even sounds poisonous. Sometimes poisons have really deceiving names, like Happy Gas.... it lulls you into a false sense of security and BAM! Death by Happy. And you never see it coming. Any who, this is the comet's first visit into the inner solar system, so lets give it a big warm hug. And also a big thanks to the Swift telescope, which took X-ray and UV pictures of the comet.

They are using NASA's Swift satellite to monitor Comet Lulin as it closes on Earth. The spacecraft has recorded simultaneous ultraviolet and X-ray images of a comet.On Jan. 28, Swift trained its Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope and X-Ray Telescope on Comet Lulin. "The comet is quite active," said team member Dennis Bodewits, a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. "The UVOT data show that Lulin was shedding nearly 800 gallons of water each second." That's enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in less than 15 minutes.

And here's one more interesting tid bit about comets. Their tails always point away from the sun. Light actually exerts pressure, and this light pressure from the sun pushes all comets' tails away. So the tail of a comet can actually be in front of it. And to read about more interesting facts (and they are VERY interesting) here is the link to the article :)