M31 versus M33





This is a picture of the galaxies M31 and M33. They are two members of our local group. M31 is the well known Andromeda Galaxy, our closest neighboring galaxy, and M33 is the lesser known Triangulum Galaxy. These two galaxies will merge with ours in a few billion years. The star in the center of the picture is Mirach and is part of the Milky Way.   

M2-9 The Wings of a Butterfly Nebula

M2-9  The Wings of a Butterfly Nebula

This is a high definition picture of a planetary nebula. This one was formed by a pair of quickly rotating stars on their way to become white dwarfs. When a star becomes a white dwarf, it sheds its outer layers of gas, this results in the impressive structures that we can see. This nebula will fade in about two thousand years.

This as a high quality picture of the Andromeda Galaxy. This galaxy is the closest one to ours at an outstanding 2.5 million light years away.  When I saw this I said to my home-dawg, "yo bro, check this out!" then my boy was like "You should totes post this on your blog!" The deep shades of blue are caused by hot, massive, and young stars which were created when a smaller gallexy merged.