Photo Credits
The photos I used for the backgrounds
on these pages are some of my favorites from space. They may take
a while to load, but I hope you agree that they are worth the wait.
The descriptions below are copied directly from the source of the photos...
the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive.
This Page
The Colorful Orion Nebula
Credit: Gary Bernstein (U. Michigan);
Copyright: U. Michigan, Lucent
Explanation: The Great Nebula in
Orion is a colorful place. Visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy patch
in the constellation of Orion, this image taken with the Big Throughput
Camera shows the Orion Nebula to be a busy neighborhood of young stars,
hot gas, and dark dust. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula (M42)
is the Trapezium - four of the brightest stars in the nebula. The eerie
blue glow surrounding the bright stars pictured here is their own starlight
reflected by nearby dust. Hot oxygen and hydrogen gases cause the extended
green and pink glows, respectively. Dark brown dust filaments cover much
of the region. The whole Orion Nebula cloud complex, which includes the
Horsehead Nebula, will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
The Rosette Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen,
and Sulfur
Credit: T. A. Rector, B. Wolpa,
M. Hanna (AURA/NOAO/NSF)
Explanation: The Rosette Nebula
is a large emission nebula located 3000 light-years away. The great abundance
of hydrogen gas gives NGC 2237 its red color in most photographs. The wind
from the open cluster of stars known as NGC 2244 has cleared a hole in
the nebula's center. The above photograph, however, was taken in the light
emitted by three elements of the gas ionized by the energetic central stars.
Here green light originating from oxygen and blue light originating from
sulfur supplements the red from hydrogen. Filaments of dark dust lace run
through the nebula's gases. The origin of recently observed fast-moving
molecular knots in the Rosette Nebula remains under investigation.
The Millennium that Defined Earth
Credit: Apollo 8 Crew, NASA
Explanation: When the second millennium
began, people generally knew that the Earth was round, but few saw much
of it beyond their local village. As the millennium progressed, humans
mapped the continents, circumnavigated the globe, and determined the composition
of the Earth. The Earth started as the center of everything, but became
a planet placed in the Solar System, which became placed in a Galaxy, which
became placed in the Local Group of Galaxies, which became placed in an
expanse so vast we call it just the Universe. As millennium two ends people
generally know what Earth looks like from afar, and how it is that all
of humanity is confined to the surface of this fragile and watery globe.
9-11-2001
International Memorial
Someone sent me the URL asking
for help because they couldn't open the page. I was moved by the extent of
International mourning. This site conveyed that the attack effected not
only Americans. Bill Moyer said that over sixty countries lost citizens in
the WTC attack. Both England and Ireland lost more citizens than in any
terrorist attack on their own soil. Over the last few months, the URL has
changed and there's lots of advertising added lately. But it still has an
impact.
Family Album
These
pictures are what I found to add to the site. Besides photos of friends
& family, there are some scenic shots from our journeys. Some photos
have spots, cracks, & pin holes, but they are what I have. Feel free
to send me some to add.
I
also added a few from KING5 TV web site of Weather Pix.
If
the thumbnails take too long to load, let me know and I'll separate the headings
to other pages.
www.solarwashington.org/newsletters/0412/winter.doc
