At the Dedication of the Lauren Interess Observatory, John Keller, Science Education Specialist at Astrocamp, presented some images of deep space that had been taken by Lauren and offered some astronomical insights and perspectives.

Lagoon Nebula

The first image is the Lagoon Nebula, a birthplace of stars. Here, meandering gases that reflect the light of nearby stars, come together by gravity and engage in nuclear reactions, thereby giving off heat, light and other radiation into space.

Swan Nebula

Next is the Swan Nebula, so named because of its appearance. This, too, is where a stars are being born.

Andromeda Galaxy

The Andromeda Galaxy, the most distant object visible to the naked eye, is nearly 3 million light years away. That means that the light we see now left Andromeda 3 million years ago and has been travelling toward us at the rate of about 6 trillion miles per year ever since. The galaxy consists of between 100 and 200 billion stars.

Dumbbell Nebula

Finally, the Dumbbell Nebula, a so-called planetary nebula, is the location of a dying star. As is typical of dying stars, it has collapsed to a hot burning dwarf star. The light it emits reflects off the expanding gas cloud around it sending the beautiful illusion of a halo to us.

Lauren's Star