Post
by Ann » Thu Dec 30, 2010 6:06 pm
This is a fantastic portrait of a remarkable star forming region, taken by a highly skillful and wonderfully dedicated astroimager, Adam Block.
Perhaps the most dramatic aspect of this skyscape is the torn and tattered shreds of apparently coal-black dust. The dark color of the dust is due to the fact that it is neither backlit nor illuminated in such a way that it scatters light. But perhaps it may indeed contain tiny, tiny grains of coal, too, so that it may be coal-black for real. The tattered appearance of the dust is a powerful reminder of the energetic events accompanying starbirth. The dust is clearly pounded by strong outflows and perhaps jets from from the baby stars in the nebula.
At center left of the picture the dust turns reddish-brown. Here the dust is indeed backlit by, probably, a combination of smallish emission nebulae associated with jets of the not yet fully formed stars in the nebula and highly reddened light emerging from the young stars buried in the dust.
Blue reflection nebulae are also seen. Here dust scatters blue starlight in much the same way as the atmosphere of the Earth scatters blue light from the Sun all over the Earth's sky. The stars associated with the reflection nebulae in this picture are hotter and bluer than the Sun, however. The blue-looking dust appears to be lined up along magnetic lines associated with the nebulae.
There is a magenta-colored "backdrop" to most of the nebular action here. The magenta color is almost certainly caused by a combination of dust-scattered blue light from hot stars and a relatively faint largish pink emission nebula, caused by the ultraviolet light of the hot stars and perhaps also powered by jets and outflows of the baby stars.
All in all, this is a fantastic region of the sky, extremely dramatic and wonderfully colorful in appearance. And Adam Block has created a superb image of it all.
Ann
Color Commentator
Still Life with NGC 2170
Thanks APOD
