[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
March 22, 2012

-Our familiar Venus and Jupiter scene in the west has now shifted into a vertical pillar. Venus is 6 degrees directly above Jupiter (there may be slight variance depending on your location.)

-New Moon (exact at 10:37 a.m. EDT).

http://uvs-model.com/pictures/nebula_helix_large.jpg

Astro Picture of the Day:
March 22, 2012

Source:
Meet the Helix Nebula. It is found in the constellation Aquarius and is only 700 light years away. A few thousand years ago, this used to be a regular star such as our sun. However, it ran out of hydrogen and helium to fuse during the red giant phase and as such, it released everything but its core into this brilliant nebula. The remains of the original star is the core called a "White Dwarf" found in the centre of the nebula. It will slowly fade because there is no nuclear reaction burning inside the star, it's the equivalent of a stovetop the moment you turn it off after leaving it on high heat for an hour. You know not to touch the stovetop immediately after turning it off because it's still hot - so to is the star, not a good idea to touch it. This is NOT a supernova explosion, but rather, this is the type of remnant that 95% of stars will leave behind, including our sun. This remnant cloud is where future stars are born.