Happy birthday to American #astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921) who set the scale of our Universe. In her day, women scientists were regularly hired to do menial chores like counting images on photographic plates as a "computer". In studying these plates, in 1908 she was able to deduce a ground-breaking theory, which allowed Hubble's later insight about the age and expansion of the universe.
1/n
When we did our #podcast episode on the #constellation#Taurus, we briefly discussed, the #Pleiades, but they were outshined by the Crab Nebula... but now we've given the Pleiades their due!
This is a composite image of the classical nova remnant GK Persei located 1,530 LY away in the #constellation Perseus (which we'll be covering in the upcoming season 2 of our podcast).
Neat "zoom-in" on the Horsehead Nebula in the #constellation#Orion (check out our latest #podcast episode for more on the #astronomy of this constellation!)
Have a listen, tell a friend, & let us know whose wished-for use of Orion is best!
Jordan: Orion O'Neal - Future NBA Superstar, somehow related to Shaq
Kit: Orion's Belts - specialty belt store
BoP: O'Rion's -- a sitcom about O'Rion with a theme song based on the O'reilly (not sponsored) jingle
The Andromeda Galaxy obvi gets all the attention for deep-sky objects in the #constellation#Andromeda (including in our most recent #podcast), but I also appreciate NGC 7662 aka Blue Snowball Nebula!
This planetary nebula is located ~2500 LY from earth!
Since we're talking all about the #mythology of the #constellation#Orion this week, I started thinking more about scorpions (one of the ways this "hero" died)
And, I learned about this creature: Pulmonoscorpius -- an extinct scorpion that was about 28" long.
🚨 We're back tomorrow AM with our #astronomy (aka Cosmic Background) #podcast episode on the #constellation Auriga: The Charioteer!
So -- what's this one look like to y'all?? Are you able to make out a Charioteer (or does it look like another constellation guy we've discussed this season... 🙃 )