APOD: Colorful Star Clouds in Cygnus (2015 Apr 22)

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APOD: Colorful Star Clouds in Cygnus (2015 Apr 22)

Post by APOD Robot » Wed Apr 22, 2015 4:08 am

Image Colorful Star Clouds in Cygnus

Explanation: Stars can form in colorful surroundings. Featured here is a star forming region rich in glowing gas and dark dust toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus), near the bright star Sadr. This region, which spans about 50 light years, is part of the Gamma Cygni nebula which lies about 1,800 light years distant. Toward the right of the image is Barnard 344, a dark and twisted dust cloud rich in cool molecular gas. A dramatic wall of dust and red-glowing hydrogen gas forms a line down the picture center. While the glowing red gas is indicative of small emission nebulas, the blue tinted areas are reflection nebulas -- starlight reflecting from usually dark dust grains. The Gamma Cygni nebula will likely not last the next billion years, as most of the bright young stars will explode, most of the dust will be destroyed, and most of the gas will drift away.

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starsurfer
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Re: APOD: Colorful Star Clouds in Cygnus (2015 Apr 22)

Post by starsurfer » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:15 am

This is a truly beautiful image of an area of Cygnus that is rarely imaged, it almost looks like a watercolour painting! I would love to see an infrared image of this area in the molecular lines of H2 to see if there are any molecular hydrogen objects in the area.

There are lots of amazing areas of nebulae in Cygnus! As well as starbirth, there are lots of examples of stardeath in the form of many planetary nebulae. There are also many examples of supernova remnants besides the Veil Nebula to be found in this amazing constellations.

Some planetary nebulae I like:
NGC 6826 by Capella Observatory
MWP 1 by Don Goldman
Ear Nebula by Don Goldman
Abell 78 by Capella Observatory

Some other interesting supernova remnants:
G65.3+5.7 by Stephane Zoll
W63 by Alessandro Maggi

I always love seeing Cygnus in the sky and its brightest star Deneb forms the asterism the Summer Triangle along with Vega in Lyra and Altair in Aquila.

booster

Re: APOD: Colorful Star Clouds in Cygnus (2015 Apr 22)

Post by booster » Wed Apr 22, 2015 4:49 pm

I was hoping to see something "earth related" on this Earth Day. Something that might inspire us all to reflect a bit on the majestic spaceship we all call home. However, I'm very grateful for the continued efforts of your team to bring these beautiful images to us every day. Thank you!

PS- Isn't the name of our sun "Sol"? Why is the spambot checker rejecting that? Hmmm.... I'll try again with the ubiquitously boring term "Sun" (equivalent of calling someone "Human" and calling that a name).

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Re: APOD: Colorful Star Clouds in Cygnus (2015 Apr 22)

Post by neufer » Wed Apr 22, 2015 6:33 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
booster wrote:
I was hoping to see something "earth related" on this Earth Day. Something that might inspire us all to reflect a bit on the majestic spaceship we all call home.
Art Neuendorffer

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