The Hubble Space Telescope has undoubtedly opened everyone's eyes to the wonders of space and the celestial objects in the universe. Thanks to the technology that was included in the telescope, it has been possible for the Hubble to photograph these objects to send back to Earth.
One of the numerous photographs that the Hubble Space Telescope has snapped includes one that features awe-inspiring gas clouds inside a nebula compex known as The Running Man.
Nebulae are a favorite subject of the Hubble to photograph and these pictures have given scientists a better idea of what they are like.
Here is what you need to know about this particular Hubble snap:
Hubble Space Telescope's Photo of the Gas Clouds in NGC 1977
The Hubble Space Telescope snapped this photo that features a Herbig-Haro object known as HH 45. The photo was shared by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) just last year.
According to NASA, "Herbig-Haro objects are a rarely seen type of nebula that occurs when hot gas ejected by a newborn star collides with the gas and dust around it at hundreds of miles per second, creating bright shock waves."
"In this image, blue indicates ionized oxygen (O II) and purple shows ionized magnesium (Mg II)," NASA adds.
This particular Herbig-Haro object is located in the nebula called NGC 1977. This particular nebulat is actually part of The Running Man, which is a complex made up of three nebulae. The other two nebulae that are part of The Running Man are the NGC 1975 and NGC 1973.
These three nebulae have been described by NASA as reflection nebulae. They do not emit their own light and instead, they reflect the light of other stars.
What is a Nebula?
You might be wondering what a nebula is to begin with. A separate NASA post defines a nebula as "a giant cloud of dust and gas in space."
Some nebulae are formed due to the explosion of a dying star, which causes the gas and dust to be expelled. Other nebulae, on the other hand, are actually where new stars beginning to come to life.
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is large orbiting telescope that was launched on April 24, 1990. The telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble, who discovered that the Milky Way galaxy is just one of the many galaxies in the universe.
The space telescope was launched into orbit by a space shuttle named Discovery and it is currently moving at a speed of five miles per second while in orbit. It is currently about 547 kilometers above our planet.
The Hubble has five scientific instruments on it: the Wide Field Camera 3, Advanced Camera for Surveys, Cosmic Origins Spectograph, Space Telescope Imaging Spectograph, and Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer.
