Astronomy Reference Libraries
Rosette Nebula -- Discovered by John Flamsteed about 1690. The Rosetta Nebula is a vast cloud of dust and gas, extending over an area of more than 1 degree across, or about 5 times the area covered by the full moon. Its parts have been assigned different NGC numbers: 2237, 2238, 2239, and 2246. Within the nebula, open star cluster NGC 2244 is situated, consisted of the young stars which...
Ring Nebula -- Discovered by Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix in 1779. The famous ring nebula M57 is often regarded as the prototype of a planetary nebula, and a showpiece in the northern hemisphere summer sky. Recent research has confirmed that it is, most probably, actually a ring (torus) of bright light-emitting material surrounding its central star, and not a spherical (or ellipsoidal)...
Ptolemy Cluster -- Known to Ptolemy 130 AD. "M7 is a large and brilliant group, easily detected with the naked eye... the cluster is seen projected on a background of numerous faint and distant Milky Way stars." (Burnham). This splendid cluster was known to Ptolemy, who mentioned it about 130 AD, who described it as the "nebula following the sting of Scorpius". The description may...
Crab Nebula -- The Crab Nebula (Messier 1, NGC 1952) is the object the which started Charles Messier logging non-cometary objects on his Messier Catalog. It is the expanding cloud of gas thrown off in the explosion that gave rise to the 1054 supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers, now more than 6 light years across (the nebula is currently expanding at 1000 km/sec and the total mass of...
Image Caption: The Subaru Telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii. Credit: Denys/Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0) The Subaru Telescope is a 26.9-foot (8.2m) telescope located at the Mauna Kea Observatory on the Big Island of Hawaii and operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). It had the largest primary mirror in the world until 2005. This is a reflecting...
Space Telescope Science Institute -- STScI mission statement: We bring the cosmos to Earth We carry out this vision by empowering the astronomy community to produce new scientific discoveries and by bringing the benefits of this research to the public. We make the best astronomical facilities productive for the largest number of scientists, and we promote new missions with the greatest...
National Radio Astronomy Observatory -- The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a research facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation. They provide state-of-the-art radio telescope facilities for use by the scientific community. They conceive, design, build, operate and maintain radio telescopes used by scientists from around the world. Scientists use their facilities to...
Arecibo Observatory -- The Arecibo Observatory is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), a national research center operated by Cornell University under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF is an independent federal agency whose aim is to promote scientific and engineering progress in the United States. NSF funds research and...
