Tour of the Invisible Universe
From the Moon to Beyond
Powers of Ten
The Moon
Visible
• Distance 240,000 miles
• Taken by Galileo spacecraft in
1990.
Infrared
• Taken during a lunar eclipse
• Bright spots are warm areas
on lunar surface.
The Sun
Visible
• Distance 93,000,000 miles
• Sunspots seen on surface
indicating sun rotates every
28 days
Infrared and X-Ray
• Granulation of sun’s surface
evidence of convection
currents of gas within sun
Jupiter
Visible
• Distance 250,000,000 miles
• Red spot largest known storm
in solar system
• Diameter of red spot twice
the size of Earth
Radio and X-Ray
• The bright central region in
the left picture is due to
radiation from charged
particles trapped in Jupiter’s
magnetic field
Great Nebula in Orion
Visible
• 1,400 light years
• Cloud of glowing gases,
mostly hydrogen
• Birthplace of stars
Infrared and X-Ray
• The bright yellow region in the
lower right of the picture is the
Sword of Orion, containing the
Great Orion Nebula
• 1,000 X-Ray emitting young stars
Cat’s Eye Nebula
Visible
Infrared and X-Ray
• Distance 3,000 light years
• Planetary nebula associated
with dying stars
• Made of gas cast off by a
dying red giant star
Crab Nebula
Visible
• Distance 6,500 light years
• Remnant of massive star
• look for various colors that
arise from different chemical
elements in the expanding
gas, including hydrogen
(orange), nitrogen (red),
sulfur (pink), and oxygen
(green).
Infrared and X-Ray
Globular Cluster (M15)
Visible
• Distance 34,000 light years
• Contains hundreds of
thousands of stars
• All stars about 15 billion years
X-Ray
• 2 neutron star binary systems
• Never seen before this picture
Supernova 1987A
• Distance: 168,000 LY
• Visible, Radio & X-Ray
images
• A star destroying itself
• Colors of X-ray image
represent different
intensities of X-ray
emission
M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy)
Visible
• Distance: 37 million light years
• Spiral galaxy with companion
galaxy nearby
Infrared
• Near-IR, Mid-IR, Far-IR
• The infrared image shows
regions of star formation
along the galaxy's spiral arms
and on either side of the
nucleus.
All images in this slide show were obtained from the
Lawrence Hall of Science website:
http://lhsgems.org/IUTour.html.