APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

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APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by APOD Robot » Sat Dec 31, 2016 10:34 am

Image Infrared Trifid

Explanation: The Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope, a well known stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. But where visible light pictures show the nebula divided into three parts by dark, obscuring dust lanes, this penetrating infrared image reveals filaments of glowing dust clouds and newborn stars. The spectacular false-color view is courtesy of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers have used the Spitzer infrared image data to count newborn and embryonic stars which otherwise can lie hidden in the natal dust and gas clouds of this intriguing stellar nursery. As seen here, the Trifid is about 30 light-years across and lies only 5,500 light-years away.

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Re: APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by Ann » Sat Dec 31, 2016 12:34 pm

The most interesting thing about today's APOD is the collection of elongated black dust filaments at lower right. Such structures are typically fertile grounds for star formation. And indeed, stars seem to form in and near the dust filaments in the APOD.

Elongated dust structures give rise to star formation in other parts of the Milky Way, too:
A snake-like object in the Milky Way galaxy. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote:
Something scary appears to be slithering across the plane of our Milky Way galaxy in this new Halloween image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The snake-like object is actually the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers say its "belly" may be harboring beastly stars in the process of forming.
...
Spitzer's new view of the snake provides the best look at what lurks inside. The yellow and orange spots located on and around it are massive stars just beginning to take shape. The bright red spot located on its belly is a monstrous stellar embryo, with about 20 to 50 times the mass of our sun.
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Re: APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by neufer » Sat Dec 31, 2016 2:02 pm


APOD Robot wrote:

[This] spectacular false-color view is courtesy of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers have used the Spitzer infrared image data to count newborn and embryonic stars which otherwise can lie hidden in the natal dust and gas clouds of this intriguing stellar nursery.
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Re: APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by ta152h0 » Sat Dec 31, 2016 6:47 pm

Is this what snakes can see, infrared ?
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Re: APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by geckzilla » Sat Dec 31, 2016 7:04 pm

ta152h0 wrote:Is this what snakes can see, infrared ?
They can't even see like a FLIR camera. The pit sensors aren't good for much beyond detecting directionality and, I guess, the general size of an object. Whatever they "see" is very blurry and nondescript. But yeah, they do detect similar wavelengths.
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Re: APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by neufer » Sat Dec 31, 2016 8:44 pm

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100314/full/news.2010.122.html wrote:
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
[c]organ pit[/c]
<<Vipers, pythons and boas have holes on their faces called pit organs, which contain a membrane that can detect infrared radiation from warm bodies up to one metre away. At night, the pit organs allow snakes to 'see' an image of their predator or prey — as an infrared camera does — giving them a unique extra sense.

The study of how snakes detect infrared radiation has progressed slowly, says neuroscientist Michael Grace from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne: "Perhaps in part because of a general human fear of snakes, and in part because of the real danger posed by pit vipers," he suggests.>>
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Re: APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by ta152h0 » Sat Dec 31, 2016 9:30 pm

I am friends with one person that goes bonkers if there is a snake within one kilometer, never mind one meter
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Re: APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by Chris Peterson » Sun Jan 01, 2017 6:27 am

ta152h0 wrote:I am friends with one person that goes bonkers if there is a snake within one kilometer, never mind one meter
Unless your friend is an Eskimo, they probably live within a kilometer of at least a few snakes.
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Re: APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by neufer » Sun Jan 01, 2017 1:40 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
ta152h0 wrote:
I am friends with one person that goes bonkers if there is a snake within one kilometer, never mind one meter
Unless your friend is an Eskimo, they probably live within a kilometer of at least a few snakes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick#Patrick_banishes_all_snakes_from_Ireland wrote: <<The absence of snakes in Ireland gave rise to the legend that they had all been banished by St. Patrick chasing them into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill. However, all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland never had snakes. "At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish", says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, who has searched extensively through Irish fossil collections and records.>>

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Re: APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by ta152h0 » Sun Jan 01, 2017 5:21 pm

However, there is an island in Brasil, not too far from Santos, on the Atlantic coast, choc full of really venomous slitherers. If Curiosity had landed there, the scientific community would have been buzzing. Don't remember the name of this island but probably " Ilha das Cobras " Makes a good password. Happy New Year and many discoveries
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Re: APOD: Infrared Trifid (2016 Dec 31)

Post by neufer » Sun Jan 01, 2017 7:24 pm

ta152h0 wrote:
However, there is an island in Brasil, not too far from Santos, on the Atlantic coast, choc full of really venomous slitherers. If Curiosity had landed there, the scientific community would have been buzzing. Don't remember the name of this island but probably " Ilha das Cobras " Makes a good password. Happy New Year and many discoveries
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilha_da_Queimada_Grande wrote:
<<Ilha da Queimada Grande, also known as Snake Island, is an island located approximately 33 kilometres off the coast of the state of São Paulo, Brazil (24°29′S 46°41′W). The island is the only home of the critically endangered, venomous Bothrops insularis (golden lancehead pit viper), which has a diet of birds. The snakes became trapped on the island when rising sea levels covered up the land that connected it to the mainland. This left the snakes to adapt to their environment, increase rapidly in population and render the island dangerous to public visitation. Queimada Grande is closed to the public in order to protect this snake population. Despite a population of 41 recorded bird species on Queimada Grande, the golden lancehead relies on only two: the Troglodytes musculus (the southern house wren), which is able to avoid the golden lancehead as a predator, and the Elaenia chilensis (a species of flycatcher), which feeds on vegetation in the same area as the snake.

The island is partly covered in rainforest and partly bare rock and grassy cleared areas, a result of deforestation. The deforestation is the origin of the island's name: the term “Queimada”, in Portuguese, means to slash and burn because when locals attempted to clear land for a banana plantation on the island, they had to clear rainforest using this technique. A lighthouse was constructed in 1909 to steer ships away from the island, operated by a single family. The family was found dead in the 1920s as a result of golden lanceheads entering the residence. The lighthouse is now automated.>>
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