BuiltWithNOF
Painting#9 Rick Costello Space Art

           “The Horsehead nebula”               20”x16” Acrylic Painting

The gases and stars that make up the Horsehead Nebula.

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   In this scene The horsehead Nebula gets its name for the gas and dust located to the right of center in the shape of a horsehead. The red gas is being lit up by background stars and is located behind the horsehead which is dark because there are no nearby stars to light it up.  The gas and dust in this scene are a mixture of atoms from soon after the Big Bang and new elements that were formed in the interiors of past stars. The pressure at the center of stars is so great that it builds heat until the temperature is so high that it begins the process of nuclear fusion where through the heat and pressure, hydrogen atoms are combining with each other and becoming other elements. It starts as 4 hydrogen atoms combine to make a 2 proton helium atom. Fuse that with another hydrogen atom and make a 3 proton atom, lithium.  An atom with 4 protons are beryllium, 6 is carbon up to the 26th element with 26 protons, iron.  In this scene, the gas and dust were thrown into space by a previous star in a super nova explosion which caused higher temperatures fusing the iron into all the other natural elements up to the 92 element with 92 protons, uranium.  Now gravity is recollecting this gas and dust and forming many new stars and planets. 

Untitle43

One of the stars in the Orion Belt showing detail

HORSEHEAD02

Gas and dust in the shape of a horsehead, darkened by the lack of any nearby stars to illuminate it.

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