Dr. Hannah Faye V. Pagayunan

29/12/2025

Unicorn, Fox Fur and Christmas Tree (APOD: 2025 Dec 25)
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Kalika
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251225.html

Explanation: A star forming region cataloged as NGC 2264, this beautiful but complex arrangement of interstellar gas and dust is about 2,700 light-years distant in the faint but fanciful constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn. Seen toward the celestial equator and near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the seasonal skyscape mixes reddish emission nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars with dark interstellar dust clouds. Where the otherwise obscuring dust clouds lie close to the hot, young stars, they also reflect starlight, forming blue reflection nebulae. In fact, bright variable star S Monocerotis is immersed in a blue-tinted haze near center. Arrayed with a simple triangular outline above S Monocerotis, the stars of NGC 2264 are popularly known as the Christmas Tree star cluster. Carved by energetic starlight, the Cone Nebula sits upside down at the apex of this cosmic Christmas tree while the dusty, convoluted pelt of glowing gas and dust under the tree is called the Fox Fur Nebula. This rich telescopic frame spans about 1.5 degrees or 3 full moons on the sky top to bottom, covering nearly 80 light-years at the distance of NGC 2264.

https://www.instagram.com/mkalika/

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=251225

29/12/2025

29/12/2025

29/12/2025

23/12/2025

W5: The Soul Nebula (APOD: 2025 Dec 17)
Image Credit & Copyright: Jeffrey Horne
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251217.html

Explanation: Stars are forming in the Soul of the Queen of Aethiopia. More specifically, a large star forming region called the Soul Nebula can be found in the direction of the constellation Cassiopeia, whom Greek mythology credits as the vain wife of a King who long ago ruled lands surrounding the upper Nile river. Also known as Westerhout 5 (W5), the Soul Nebula houses several open clusters of stars, ridges and pillars darkened by cosmic dust, and huge evacuated bubbles formed by the winds of young massive stars. Located about 6,500 light years away, the Soul Nebula spans about 100 light years and is usually imaged next to its celestial neighbor the Heart Nebula (IC 1805). The featured image, taken from near Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a composite of 234 hours of exposures made in different colors: red as emitted by hydrogen gas, yellow as emitted by sulfur, and blue as emitted by oxygen.

https://www.instagram.com/jeffreyhorne/

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=251217

23/12/2025

Consuming processed foods, which are high in salt, increases your risk of premature death from heart or kidney disease.

Don’t risk your life by eating too much salt.

23/12/2025

Take regular breaks from digital devices 📲💻 to avoid eye strain and dry eyes 👀

08/12/2025

Researchers wanted to know if we were overlooking a very simple thing that could affect gut microbes: how long they spend hanging out with p**p before it makes its way to the wild loo yonder.
https://www.sciencealert.com/how-long-p**p-stays-in-your-body-could-impact-your-health-study-finds

08/12/2025

The Bipolar Jets of KX Andromedae (APOD: 2025 Dec 05)
Image Credit & Copyright: Tim Schaeffer and the Deep Sky Collective
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251205.html

Explanation: Blasting outward from variable star KX Andromedae, these stunning bipolar jets are 19 light-years long. Recently discovered, they are revealed in unprecedented detail in this deep telescopic image centered on KX And and composed from over 692 hours of combined image data. In fact, KX And is spectroscopically found to be an interacting binary star system consisting of a bright, hot B-type star with a swollen cool giant star as its co-orbiting, close companion. The stellar material from the cool giant star is likely being transferred to the hot B-type star through an accretion disk, with spectacular symmetric jets driven outward perpendicular to the disk itself. The known distance to KX And of 2,500 light-years, angular size of the jets, and estimated inclination of the accretion disk lead to the size estimate for each jet of an astonishing 19 light-years.

https://deepskycollective.com/kxand/steeve
https://deepskycollective.com/gallery

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=251205

27/11/2025

Portrait of NGC 1055 (APOD: 2025 Nov 27)
Image Credit & Copyright: John Hayes
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251127.html

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1055 is a dominant member of a small galaxy group a mere 60 million light-years away toward the aquatically intimidating constellation Cetus. Seen edge-on, the island universe spans over 100,000 light-years, a little larger than our own Milky Way galaxy. The colorful, spiky stars decorating this cosmic portrait of NGC 1055 are in the foreground, well within the Milky Way. But telltale pinkish star forming regions and young blue star clusters are scattered through winding dust lanes along the distant galaxy's thin disk. With a smattering of even more distant background galaxies, the deep image also reveals a boxy halo that extends far above and below the central bulge and disk of NGC 1055. The halo itself is laced with faint, narrow structures, and could represent the mixed and spread out debris from a satellite galaxy disrupted by the larger spiral some 10 billion years ago.

https://app.astrobin.com/u/jhayes_tucson

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=251127