Seasons Greetings from the cosmos to Earth...brought to you by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA, ESA & Mohammad Heydari-Malayeri (Observatoire de Paris, France)
For the Holidays...
News story originally written on December 20, 2001
This image of the NGC 2080
nebula was taken by
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Because it is red and white and green, it looks like something that could be on front of a holiday card! The name of the nebula isn't quite so appropriate for the holiday season as it is nicknamed the "Ghost Head Nebula". Still, these holiday colors, produced by the light emitted by oxygen and hydrogen, help astronomers investigate the star-forming processes in nebulas such as NGC 2080.
Other holiday happenings include Houston, mission control, being transformed to "Santa Control" this Christmas Eve. NASA experts will help monitor Santa's speed and reindeer performance, helping Santa meet the extreme demands placed on him during this 24-hour period. "With three people living on the space station, we have a
unique vantage point to help Santa on his rounds," said Matt
Abbott, flight director. "We have Yury Onufrienko, Dan Bursch
and Carl Walz on board the station ready to help us out with
real-time Santa sightings, and our flight control team is
ready for this opportunity." "Santa Control, Houston" will be shown on NASA Television
during the NASA Video File December 24, which will air at
noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. EST.
All of us at Windows to the Universe would like to wish you a safe and peaceful holiday season.
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