APOD: Cosmic Clouds in Cygnus (2022 Jun 09)

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APOD: Cosmic Clouds in Cygnus (2022 Jun 09)

Post by APOD Robot » Thu Jun 09, 2022 4:05 am

Image Cosmic Clouds in Cygnus

Explanation: These cosmic clouds of gas and dust drift through rich star fields along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the high flying constellation Cygnus. They're too faint to be seen with the unaided eye though, even on a clear, dark night. Image data from a camera and telephoto lens using narrowband filters was used to construct this 10 degree wide field of view. The deep mosaic reveals a region that includes star forming dust clouds seen in silhouette against the characteristic glow of atomic hydrogen and oxygen gas. NGC 6888 is the standout emission nebula near the top. Blown by winds from an massive Wolf-Rayet star it's about 25 light-years across and known as the Crescent Nebula. A faint bluish curl just below center in the frame is also the signature of a Wolf-Rayet star. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of their stellar lives, both stars will ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Toward the right, a massive, young O type star powers the glow of Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula.

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Ann
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Re: APOD: Cosmic Clouds in Cygnus (2022 Jun 09)

Post by Ann » Thu Jun 09, 2022 4:53 am

APOD 9 June 2022 Tulip Nebula Cygnus X 1.png
Wikipedia wrote:

Cygnus X-1 (abbreviated Cyg X-1) is a galactic X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus and was the first such source widely accepted to be a black hole...

The compact object is now estimated to have a mass about 21.2 times the mass of the Sun and has been shown to be too small to be any known kind of normal star, or other likely object besides a black hole...

Cygnus X-1 belongs to a high-mass X-ray binary system, located about 2.22 kiloparsecs from the Sun, that includes a blue supergiant variable star designated HDE 226868 which it orbits at about 0.2 AU, or 20% of the distance from Earth to the Sun. A stellar wind from the star provides material for an accretion disk around the X-ray source. Matter in the inner disk is heated to millions of degrees, generating the observed X-rays. A pair of jets, arranged perpendicularly to the disk, are carrying part of the energy of the infalling material away into interstellar space.

This system may belong to a stellar association called Cygnus OB3, which would mean that Cygnus X-1 is about five million years old and formed from a progenitor star that had more than 40 solar masses. The majority of the star's mass was shed, most likely as a stellar wind. If this star had then exploded as a supernova, the resulting force would most likely have ejected the remnant from the system. Hence the star may have instead collapsed directly into a black hole.
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orin stepanek
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Re: APOD: Cosmic Clouds in Cygnus (2022 Jun 09)

Post by orin stepanek » Thu Jun 09, 2022 11:38 am

CygWideHa-OIIIBiColorImage2_crop2_1024.jpg
00Cygnus_Visual_colors1100.jpg
Amazing what astronomers reveals that the eyes cannot see! A
beautiful mix of stars and gas through filters of coarse! I love these
views! 8-)
CrescentHOOcombinedFinalimage1024.jpg
The Crescent; nice! :D
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

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