Images Dated 11th August 2009

Orion nebula

Orion nebula. Coloured composite infrared and visible light image of the Orion nebula M42. This emission nebula, a cloud of gas and dust in which starbirth takes place, is found in the constellation Orion, some 1500 light years from Earth. Glowing clouds of ionised hydrogen and sulphur gases are green, and cool clouds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are orange and red. The gases are ionised by radiation from the four young Trapezium stars at the core (centre left). The small orange dots are embryonic stars, growing as they accumulate dust and gas. M42's neighbour, the M43 nebula, can also be seen (pale blue, top left). Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, visible light data from the Hubble Space Telescope

© NASA/JPL-CALTECH/STSCI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Eagle Nebula

Eagle Nebula. Optical image of the Eagle Nebula (M16, NGC 6611). This is an emission nebula, a cloud of gas that glows as the hydrogen gas it contains is ionised by radiation from the hot young stars within it. The stars in the cluster are about 5. 5 million years old, young in stellar terms. They formed from the coalescence of the nebula's gas. M16 is around 7000 light years from Earth in the constellation Serpens Cauda. This image was produced by a CCD (charge-coupled device) at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, USA.
*** THIS PICTURE MAY NOT BE USED TO STATE OR IMPLY NOAO ENDORSEMENT OF ANY COMPANY OR PRODUCT ***
** THIS PICTURE MAY NOT BE USED TO STATE OR IMPLY NOAO ENDORSEMENT OF ANY PRODUCT**

© NATIONAL OPTICAL ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORIES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Ancient Archway In Tunisia

Carthage was the center or capital city of the ancient Carthaginian civilization, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now the Tunis Governorate in Tunisia.
The city developed from a Phoenician colony into the capital of an empire dominating the Mediterranean Sea during the first millennium BC.
The ancient city was destroyed by the Roman Republic in the Third Punic War in 146 BC then re-developed as Roman Carthage, which became the major city of the Roman Empire in the province of Africa. The Roman city was again occupied by the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, in 698.
The site remained uninhabited, the regional power shifting to the medina of Tunis in the medieval period, until the early 20th century, when it began to develop into a coastal suburb of Tunis, incorporated as Carthage municipality in 1919

© Stig Stockholm Pedersen