“Going To Class To Teach, I Feel A Little Nervous About How My Student Might Perceive Me Or What They

This unusual planetary nebula, NGC 7027, is one of the smallest, brightest, and most unusually shaped planetary nebulas known. Given its expansion rate, NGC 7027 first started expanding, as visible from Earth, about 600 years ago. For much of its history, the planetary nebula has been expelling shells, as seen in blue in the featured image.

In modern times, though, for reasons unknown, it began ejecting gas and dust (seen in red) in specific directions that created a new pattern that seems to have four corners. What lies at the nebula's center is unknown, with one hypothesis holding it to be a close binary star system where one star sheds gas onto an erratic disk orbiting the other star. NGC 7027, about 3,000 light years away, was first discovered in 1878 and can be seen with a standard backyard telescope toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Joel Kastner (RIT) et al.; Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

vdB 141, Ghost Nebula

Mayall’s Object (ARP 174)

While Galaxies can come in all shapes and sizes, with a preference to Spiral and Elliptical, few come as interesting as ARP 174. 

The designation ARP is the surname of Halton Arp, an American astronomer who in 1966 published The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, of which Mayall’s Object was the 174th in his catalogue. 

Originally thought to be a galaxy reacting with a normally visible line of Hydrogen in Intergalactic space, it’s now considered to be two distinct galaxies in the throws of merger. As the elongated object made contact, the ring like structure of the other was formed by a shockwave of the event. 

At 450 Million light years from Earth, we are seeing what happened almost half a billion years ago, and not what is there right now.

hey it’s me we’ve got hat hair and a dirty mirror but we also have PROGRESS 💪

"I jiggle, therefore I am" is my new life motto

Sometimes it's fun to play with gender, to subvert and mix words and roles. I like it when my friends call me bro. I like to dress in men's clothes and enjoy the power and respect they represent. I like the cool guy image.

Sometimes it's fun to pass, to accidentally trick and challenge people. They make funny stories, and I feel like a shapeshifter making fun of the social order.

But I always return to myself. Underneath it all is my real, unchangable female self, and I am a woman.

I am a woman with a shaved head. A woman in a suit. A woman called sir and bro and he. A woman who's rough and tough and handsome and bold.

I am a woman in rebellion, and there are no words or clothes or assigned roles or social standards that can take it from me.

my entry for @brideanthology: a short comic about two elderly brides 💛

NGC 2899

Astronomers at ESO’s VLT observatory have taken this stunning image of the planetary nebular NGC 2899. 

The nebula is the result of a star that collapsed and formed a White Dwarf, expelling the gas outwards, and now is illuminated by the remnants of that star, irradiating the gas and causing it to glow. 

Our sun will one day be a planetary nebula and a white dwarf. 

Source : http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/vlt-planetary-nebula-ngc-2899-08695.html

NGC 1015

A strongly barred spiral galaxy, 110 million light years away in the constellation of Cetus. 

As galaxies age, the central black hole increases in size, and it’s effects become more pronounced, leading the a galaxy moving from Spiral to Lenticular and then finally to Elliptical. The central section of this galaxy looks look very similar to elliptical galaxies, with no obvious features, just ancient stars that create an almost haze like feature. 

While the outer edges of the galaxy, outside of the barred area, are full of star birth and activity. This is likely because they are out of the range of the impact from the central black hole, but also because the galaxy itself may have taken on new matter from a galaxy merger at some point. 

Eventually, it will become a elliptical, just as our own galaxy will, no doubt after several more merges along the way.