The Earthball is a fantastic tool for discussing our planet with children, combining playtime with education!

Cecilia Scorza, EU-UNAWE Germany

Optical Illusions in Space

Take this new space photo, for example. It shows a cloud of dust and gas (shown in red) next to a bright star. However, the star is actually much closer to the Earth than the cloud is. Stars like this, which lie between the Earth and the object that an astronomer is trying to observe, are called ‘foreground stars’. They are much brighter than the other stars in photos because they are closer to us.

Credit:

ESO/APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO)/A. Hacar et al./Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin

Share:

Images

Screensize JPEG
351.8 KB

Wallpapers

1024x768
149.7 KB
1280x1024
249.5 KB
1600x1200
372.1 KB