NGC 2392: Circus in the Sky

Narrator (April Hobart, CXC): Before the telescope was invented in the 17th century, people thought that the Earth was the center of the Universe. They thought the Sun, the planets and all the stars revolved around us! It was only when we had the technology to peer deeper into space that we realised that not only does the Earth move around the Sun, but the Sun moves around the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way!

In the last 100 years, telescopes have been advancing at an unbelievable rate. Now we have huge radio telescopes that stretch over 50 kilometers, and we even have telescopes that have been launched into space. With these powerful instruments, we can reveal the secret wonders of the Universe that our ancestors never dreamed of!

Take this picture, for example, it shows a planetary nebula, which is the remains of a star that is blowing itself apart. This one is called the "Clownface Nebula", can you see why? It looks like a clowns head, complete with a crazy hairstyle and a big, shiny nose at the center.

This object was first spotted in 1757, but today we are still discovering new details about it. Shown in purple is gas at a temperature over a million degrees. The red, green and blue pattern shows the ejected outer layers of the exploded star. Much more recently, astronomers realized that a very hot pair of stars may live at the center of this gassy cloud, and they are orbiting each other!