Captivated

unknownskywalker:

Hubble serves up a holiday snow angel

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope presents a festive holiday greeting that’s out of this world. The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel. The outstretched “wings” of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium.

Sharpless 2-106 lies nearly 2,000 light-years from us. The nebula measures several light-years in length. It appears in a relatively isolated region of the Milky Way galaxy. Twin lobes of super-hot gas — glowing blue in this image — stretch outward from the massive, young star IRS 4, creating the “wings” of our angel.

A ring of dust and gas orbiting the star acts like a belt, cinching the expanding nebula into an “hourglass” shape, with ripples and ridges in the gas interacting with the cooler interstellar medium. Dusky red veins surround the blue emission from the nebula. The faint light emanating from the central star reflects off of tiny dust particles. This illuminates the environment around the star, showing darker filaments of dust winding beneath the blue lobes.

Infrared observations of the nebula have also uncovered more than 600 brown dwarfs with weighs less than a tenth of our Sun. Because of their low mass, they cannot produce sustained energy through nuclear fusion like our Sun does. They encompass the nebula in a small cluster.

Watch video: Three-dimensional view of Sharpless 2-106

Happy Holidays friends :)

This is one of my favorite spots in the whole world. It is definitely a reason I miss living in Portland.

(via humblebumble)

This makes me miss my car…I wish I had gotten the chance to bring it back to life and take it on fun adventures like this.

crookedindifference:

panamericana

thedailywhat:

RIP: Steve Jobs, co-founder and former-CEO of Apple Inc., passed away today at the age of 56.

Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004. His failing health forced him to resign his role as Apple’s CEO earlier this year, as he felt he could “no longer meet my duties and expectations.”

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being,” Apple said in a statement. “Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

Apple is asking anyone who wishes to share their thoughts, memories, and condolences to email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

October 14th was recently designated Steve Jobs Day by Apple fans.

[apple.]

It’s times like now that I need to remember this the most. 

(via crookedindifference)

Oh, I do think I have fallen in love with this show. And books I will always love.

(via unknownskywalker)