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.