Starship Asterisk*

M16 and the Eagle Nebula

Explanation: A star cluster around 2 million years young, M16 is surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed image of the region includes cosmic sculptures made famous in Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex. Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the left edge of the frame is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 and the Eagle Nebula lie about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).

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Ah, resplendent redness, but with a dash of blue to keep Ann happy. Nice.

Indeed, this is a resplendent RGB Adam Block image, so it does indeed make me happy!

Ann

Also one of my favorite nebula, I like the Reflection on the lower left.

This reminds me of SHENRON THE DRAGON IN DRAGON BALL Z.....looking down on his Dragon Balls....READY TO GRANT A WISH.....

So many interesting things...

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BDanielMayfield wrote:Ah, resplendent redness, but with a dash of blue to keep Ann happy. Nice.

I guess the redness is H-alpha?

hoohaw wrote:

BDanielMayfield wrote:Ah, resplendent redness, but with a dash of blue to keep Ann happy. Nice.

I guess the redness is H-alpha?

Wikipedia wrote:
H-alpha Emission: In the simplified Rutherford Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, the Balmer lines result from an electron jump between the second energy level closest to the nucleus, and those levels more distant. The transition depicted here produces an H-alpha photon, and the first line of the Balmer series. For hydrogen this transition results in a photon of wavelength 656 nm (red).

H-alpha (Hα) is a specific deep-red visible spectral line in the Balmer series created by hydrogen with a wavelength of 656.28 nm, which occurs when a hydrogen electron falls from its third to second lowest energy level. H-alpha light is important to astronomers as it is emitted by many emission nebulae …

Yes. Red photons! Some of the beasts that are released from ionized hydrogen as it cools.

The pink colour near the centre is also due to the presence of OIII emission in the nebula!