Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Watchers of the skies
- 2 Our Sun
- 3 Aspects of our Solar System
- 4 The rocky planets
- 5 The hunt for Planet X
- 6 Voyages to the outer planets
- 7 Harbingers of doom
- 8 Impact!
- 9 Four hundred years of the telescope
- 10 The family of stars
- 11 Aging stars
- 12 The search for other worlds
- 13 Are we alone? The search for life beyond the Earth
- 14 Our island Universe
- 15 Wonders of the southern sky
- 16 Proving Einstein right
- 17 Black holes: no need to be afraid
- 18 It’s about time
- 19 Hubble’s heritage: the astronomer and the telescope that honours his name
- 20 The violent Universe
- 21 The invisible Universe: dark matter and dark energy
- 22 The afterglow of creation
- 23 To infinity and beyond: a view of the cosmos
- Index
- Plate section
- References
15 - Wonders of the southern sky
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Watchers of the skies
- 2 Our Sun
- 3 Aspects of our Solar System
- 4 The rocky planets
- 5 The hunt for Planet X
- 6 Voyages to the outer planets
- 7 Harbingers of doom
- 8 Impact!
- 9 Four hundred years of the telescope
- 10 The family of stars
- 11 Aging stars
- 12 The search for other worlds
- 13 Are we alone? The search for life beyond the Earth
- 14 Our island Universe
- 15 Wonders of the southern sky
- 16 Proving Einstein right
- 17 Black holes: no need to be afraid
- 18 It’s about time
- 19 Hubble’s heritage: the astronomer and the telescope that honours his name
- 20 The violent Universe
- 21 The invisible Universe: dark matter and dark energy
- 22 The afterglow of creation
- 23 To infinity and beyond: a view of the cosmos
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
From northerly latitudes, there is a part of the heavens that we never see and a part that has such a low elevation when it rises in the south that we do not see it well. This region covers the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy, containing many beautiful clusters and nebulae, our two nearest galactic neighbours, the Magellanic Clouds, a star that may well be the next nearby supernova, a pair of colliding galaxies, and a globular cluster containing ‘musical’ stars. This chapter aims to introduce you to this most beautiful part of the heavens.
Our Milky Way
Stretching through Sagittarius and Scorpius, the central region of the Milky Way as seen in Figure 15.1 is a truly beautiful sight. We can see rich star fields crossed by intricate dust lanes and punctuated by bright nebulae and star clusters. The nebulae include the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae and the bright open clusters include M6 and M7 in Sagittarius and the Northern Jewel Box in Scorpius. There are also ‘dark’ nebulae such as the Pipe Nebula that lies on the borders of Sagittarius and Scorpius and the Coal Sack in Crux.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Journey through the UniverseGresham Lectures on Astronomy, pp. 209 - 225Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014