The Veil Nebula
The Veil Nebula rides high in the northern summer sky on the wings of the beautiful constellation Cygnus the Swan. Cygnus' brightest star, Deneb, along with Altair in Aquila and Vega in Lyra, form the well-known asterism of the Summer Triangle, which encloses a fabulous portion of the Milky Way. Within Cygnus lie numerous binocular and telescopic objects that delight observers. The Veil Nebula ranks as one of the most fascinating -- and challenging.
Myths galoreDuring the reign of emperor Caesar Augustus, Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C-17 A.D.) wrote the Metamorphoses. Its stories deal with death and transformation. One of the tales highlights the Trojan warrior Cygnus, son of the sea-god Poseidon.
Cygnus boldly challenged the Greek hero Achilles to combat. As bravely as Cygnus fought, he was no match for Achilles, who pummeled Cygnus with a shield and sword. When Achilles went to claim his opponent's armor, the body was gone. Poseidon had transported Cygnus into the sky on the back of a magnificent swan.
Another Greek myth relates how Zeus turned himself into a swan to seduce the beautiful nymph Nemesis. The result of this union was a single egg, which was given to Leda, Queen of Sparta. The exquisite Helen (whose birth resulted in the destruction of Troy) hatched from the egg. Zeus placed the swan he became into the sky in remembrance of his amorous adventure.
Other stories say the swan is the musician Orpheus, who the gods transformed into a bird and placed near the beloved harp he invented, Lyra. But even more transformations lie deep within the Veil Nebula that today are the territory of astronomers.
Discovery and historyEnglish astronomer Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) first spotted the Veil Nebula September 5, 1784. In 1783, Herschel beganwhat he called "a series of observations (or Sweeps...
More Space
essays:
The Wonderful History of Space Exploration In Depth
... landed on Moon's surface and Luna 2 landed east of the Sea of Serenity. One month later, in October 1959 Luna 3 flew ... for the invention of rockets to occur, and Newton also created the third ...
Analyse and compare the information you have processed to assess the relative accuracy of the two models at predicting future astronomical events, such as the position of the planets.
... for the observed motions of the stars, the Moon and the position of the planets. Copernicus wanted to increase the accuracy of his ...
Space ship one: Scaled Composites Venture to Win the X Prize and To Put Civilians in Space
... and invent new tooling as needed to further develop and to structurally complete various design projects (Scaled Composites, 2008). Once the design prototype is completed, there is actual flight-testing of the craft ...
"Space Saving, Ready for Liftoff" My essay is about the contradictory issue of alloting more money for NASA and other space programs, or cutting back on their budgets.
... careers in engineering and science were triggered by NASA (Stern 78). These intrigued students will grow up to become the future of the countrys space program. For that reason, NASA should maintain and further their studies, while their current budget ...
The Effects of Space Exploration on Modern Society
... as the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) and the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) also contributed to the study of the stars, galaxies and the structure of the universe ...
Describes the who, when, what and how it was developed of the big bang theory.
... with the theory that the expanding of the universe was the beginning of time ... telescope and came up with results that proved Gamow's theories true, even though the theory they were trying to prove was slightly different. Scientists ...
The Pleiades Star Cluster Phenomenon
... Greek Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. 1999 Baker, Douglas. The Seven Rays: Key to the Mysteries. Wellingborough: Aquarian, 1977. Cowan, James. Myths of the dreaming: interpreting Aboriginal legends. Unity Press. Roseville, N.S.W. 1994 Marquis, Thomas B. Wooden Leg: A Warrior ...
The usage of stratospheric balloons. One old invention back on fashion.
... planes or satellites. Using sounding rockets will transport the experiment to the ozone layer without any problems, but the time of contact is very short due to the speed of the rocket. A rocket flying to these altitudes is only in ...