The cosmos is rife with wonders that have been discovered and that have yet to be discovered. One example is the former is NCG 6188. Don't let its scientific sounding name fool you. A photograph of this emission nebula reveals it to be more beautiful than its name lets on. View the picture in the full article after the jump.

Few would argue that there are lots of beautiful sights to see in outer space. In fact, one such cosmic wonder is known as the Fox Fur Nebula, which was viewed through the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). Check out the nebula in the full article, after the jump, why don't you?

Stars and clouds of gas often form breathtaking patterns in space. Scientists at NASA have grown fond over the years of giving creative names to these celestial bodies. In a new photo that the agency is showing off, the Running Chicken Nebula is displayed in crimson glory. You can check it out by clicking on the "read more" link below.

After showing you a solar tsunami as it occurs, we bring you this horse-shaped image from your left. See it? That's the Horsehead Nebula from the Orion constellation. Using only a small telescope, the Star Shadows Remote Observatory from New Mexico, USA was able to photograph its entire surroundings. Head over the full article to see the Horsehead Nebula in its fullest majesty.

Something has caught the eye of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The culprit: a red-giant named Mira. As seen in the image, the star was seen exhibiting a trailing tail-like material from the outer envelope over 13 light-years in length.

The phenomenon was detected recently even though, according to studies, the formation of the tail-like streak has been present over the past 30,000 years. The only reason why this wasn't noticed before was the fact that the emission radiated by Mira was caused by ultraviolet light; a source that the Galaxy Evolution Explorer is very sensitive to.

Also, because Mira moves at a comparatively faster rate than most red giants, the appearance of a bow shock has also been noted. This build up of gas in front of the star is thought to be the cause of its turbulent, tail-like appearance as it trails across the cosmos.

Mira was similar to our own sun billions of years ago. As such, this phenomenon may give a foreshadowing as to the future of our own local star. It has been theorized that upon the expulsion of all its remaining planetary gases into space, Mira will eventually form a colorful shell called a planetary nebula. In time, once the nebula fades, the burnt-out core of the star will be the only thing remaining left of it and thus forming a white dwarf.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology were the ones responsible for this discovery through the Galaxy Evolution Explorer. James D. Neill of Caltech had this to say regarding Mira:

It's amazing to discover such a startlingly large and important feature of an object that has been known and studied for over 400 years. This is exactly the kind of surprise that comes from a survey mission like the Galaxy Evolution Explorer.

Orson Scott Card, author of Ender's Game (the Hugo Award winner and Nebula Award winner), is a recovering game addict - or at least that's one interpretation you can give his interview over at Gaming Today. Ender's Game is being turned into a movie by Warner Brothers, and at the same time Orson Scott Card is open to the possibility of his book becoming a video game.

For those not familiar with Ender's Game, just understand that it's one of the best sci-fi books ever written (in our honest opinions). A fast-paced story about violence, evil, war, and leadership. It's required reading, or so Wikipedia claims, at the Marine Corps University at Quantico.

And if it's good enough for the US Marines, it should be good enough for you gamers out there, right? Anyway, back to the interview. Orson Scott Card talked about being addicted to gaming:

The weird thing was that even when I wasn't playing, I felt a tremendous anxiety. I had responsibilities - there were cities waiting for me to tell them what to build! Now, I'm not insane. My conscious mind knew that it was just a game, and when I wasn't running the program, nothing was happening at all. But I invested so much tension in the playing of the game that it didn't go away when I left the computer. The call of duty was still there.

The interview also tackled what goes into writing a story for video games. Card said:

Games CAN'T have the kind of storylines that movies and books have, or they wouldn't be playable. ... What makes a game work is the opposite of what makes a story work. In a story, you are seeking to find out what really happened - why people do what they do, what the results of their choices are. ... In a game, the opposite illusion must be created. Even though most games absolutely force you to follow preset paths, the gamewrights try to give you the illusion that you are making free choices (even though you are actually, in almost all games, still being channeled through certain puzzles with fixed solutions).

As for Ender's Game, it won't just be one game in Card's vision:

• The Battle Room. This pivotal set in the book can be several game modules in real life.
• Space war games. The three wars (back in Mazer's time all the way to Ender's time).
• Story-based games. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.
• MMORPG. This one is based on the Battle School in Ender's Game.
• The Fantasy Game. The "mind game" from the novel.
• The Hive Queen. It's like Civilization (a game franchise that Card was addicted to).
• Post-war war. Card describes this as being like Risk.

Well, Mr. Card, there are quite a few fans here at QJ.NET who would be first in line to get a game that follows the Hegemon.

Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 was able to catch the final blaze of glory for the NGC 2440, taking off its hot mantle of outer material and revealing the the bright remnant of a star which used to be similar to our sun- a white dwarf.

The white dwarf is the bright spot at the center of the image. This phase in the star's life is when the size of the body is at its smallest, but it's extremely dense and very hot with surface temperatures hitting more than 200,000 degrees Celsius and gives off a barrage of ultraviolet light which lights up the gas cloud surrounding it.

The two lobes of matter visible in the image is attributed to the violent nature of the nebula, wherein the star's death occurred in several phases. In each stage, material was cast in different directions which resulted in the formation of the two lobe-like masses of matter hurtling freely into space.

Don't worry, though. Humans probably won't be around too long to see this happen. Scientists say that our Sun is still midway through its life and should be millions and millions of years away from its last gasp.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered well over 2,000 planet-forming discs surrounding young stars in the Orion Nebula. These were observed indirectly using infrared photography, which detects the temperature variations indicating the existence of the discs.

The Orion Nebula is 1,450 light years from Earth, and is about 240 light years across. The image of Orion was released yesterday, and shows objects smaller than our own Sun in that region for the first time. Thomas Megeath of the University of Toledo said, "This is the most complete census of young stars with discs in the Orion cloud complex...basically, we have a census of potential solar systems, and we want to know how many are born in the cities, how many in small towns, and how many out in the countryside."

Three-fifths of the stars that had discs were found in large clusters. One fourth of them were solitary, with the remainder belonging to small clusters. This has caused astronomers to rethink their earlier belief that 90% of all stars are born in clusters. The researchers estimate that the number of stars with proto-planetary discs in Orion may run as high as 70%. "It is an interesting question why this number isn't 100%," Megeath stated. "Eventually, we may be able to understand why some stars don't have discs."

Click on the above left image to see the Spitzer image in all its glory.