Podcaster: Pamela Quevillon
Title: A Sea of Stars
Organization: Speak Easy Narration
Link : http://speakeasynarration.com ; http://www.unawe.org/kids/unawe1368/
Description: Space scoop, news for children. Today’s we bring you the colossal cosmic crash
Bio: Pamela Quevillon is a voice actress who most often lends her voice to science and science fiction content. You can find her work on the “Escape Pod” and “365 Days of Astronomy”
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by — no one. We still need sponsors for many days in 2013, so please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.
Transcript:
This photograph shows the Prawn Nebula. You can see hundreds of blue stars dotted across this picture, sparkling among the colourful swirls of gas. The colours make it look a little like a prawn swimming in the sea. Credit: ESO
This photograph shows the Prawn Nebula. You can see hundreds of blue stars dotted across this picture, sparkling among the colourful swirls of gas. The colours make it look a little like a prawn swimming in the sea. But how do we know which stars are part of the nebula, which lie in front of it and which are behind it? Measuring how far away cosmic objects are is a very tricky business. Luckily for us, astronomers are a very smart bunch of people, and they’ve come up with a number of solutions! Thanks to these, we know that most of the bright blue stars in this picture belong to one star cluster that lies much closer to us than the nebula.
Once we know the distance to an object, working out its size is much easier. The Prawn Nebula is so big that it would take 250 years for light to travel from one end to the other—and light travels faster than anything else in the Universe! The nebula covers four times as much of the night sky as the full Moon!
But despite its enormous size, most people don’t pay that much attention to it. It’s nothing personal though; it’s just that the Prawn Nebula is very faint. The nebula glows because of the light from its neighbours. The neighbouring star cluster shines ultra-violet light, which cannot be seen by human eyes. This very powerful light is what makes the Prawn Nebula glow.
Cool Fact
- The Prawn Nebula appears very faint in light that can be seen by the naked eye. So, to make this photograph so eye-catching, the colours collected by the telescope were brightened.
- 365 Days of Astronomy is a community podcast made possible thanks to the contributions of people like you. Please consider donating at 365DaysofAstronomy.org/Donate
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the New Media Working Group of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. In the new year the 365 Days of Astronomy project will be something different than before….Until then…goodbye.