Starship Asterisk*

neufer wrote:

DavidLeodis wrote:
I had also wondered about the name Pismis, so it is good to know it is named after Mr Pismis.

Is there a Mrs Pismis

• Mrs. Paris Pişmiş : http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 21#p187806

The Greatest Stars | NASA IOTD | 10 Dec 2010

Click to view full size image

The small open star cluster Pismis 24 lies in the core of the NGC 6357 nebula in Scorpius, about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. The brightest object in the center of this image is designated Pismis 24-1 and was once thought to weigh as much as 200 to 300 solar masses. This would not only have made it by far the most massive known star in the galaxy, but would have put it considerably above the currently believed upper mass limit of about 150 solar masses for individual stars.

However, Hubble Space Telescope high-resolution images of the star show that it is really two stars orbiting one another that are each estimated to be 100 solar masses.

In addition, spectroscopic observations with ground-based telescopes further reveal that one of the stars is actually a tight binary that is too compact to be resolved even by Hubble. This divides the estimated mass for Pismis 24-1 among the three stars. Although the stars are still among the heaviest known, the mass limit has not been broken due to the multiplicity of the system.

The images of NGC 6357 were taken with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in April 2002.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)

neufer wrote:

Ann wrote:
Here is another image of Pismis 24 and the star in today's APOD:

The bluish-pink area in the middle of the picture is exactly the part of the
nebula that was strongly turquoise in the Hubble palette image of NGC 6357.
This is the most highly ionized part of the nebula.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081009.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061220.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991207.html

GaryR wrote:

Ann wrote:
Similarly, in today's APOD, it could be that the colliding stellar winds create the strong emission nebula between the cluster and the star inside a cavity of gas and dust.

Ann

Huh? I thought it was the intense ultraviolet light from the massive stars that causes the emission nebula. Stellar wind just blows the gas away.

Gary

Ann wrote:
Similarly, in today's APOD, it could be that the colliding stellar winds create the strong emission nebula between the cluster and the star inside a cavity of gas and dust.

Ann

Ann wrote:
Here is another image of Pismis 24 and the star in today's APOD:

The bluish-pink area in the middle of the picture is exactly the part of the
nebula that was strongly turquoise in the Hubble palette image of NGC 6357.
This is the most highly ionized part of the nebula.

neufer wrote:

DavidLeodis wrote:
I had also wondered about the name Pismis, so it is good to know it is named after Mr Pismis.

Is there a Mrs Pismis

DavidLeodis wrote:
I had also wondered about the name Pismis, so it is good to know it is named after Mr Pismis.

DavidLeodis wrote:
I am a bit confused (as usual ). Is the very bright star in the APOD part of Pismis 24 or not . Clicking on the APOD brings up a larger field-of-view image that is also reproduced in an earlier post by Ann in which it states it "is another image of NGC 6357, showing more of the cluster Pismis 24". The "showing more" would seem therefore to imply that the bright star in the APOD is part of Pismis 24.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6357#Pismis_24 wrote:
<<NGC 6357 is a diffuse nebula near NGC 6334 in the constellation Scorpius. This nebula was given the name War and Peace Nebula by the Midcourse Space Experiment scientists because of its appearance. They said that in infrared images the bright, western part resembles a dove, while the eastern part looks like a skull. The nebula contains many proto-stars shielded by dark disks of gas, and young stars wrapped in expanding "cocoons".>>

DavidLeodis wrote:I am a bit confused (as usual ). Is the very bright star in the APOD part of Pismis 24 or not . Clicking on the APOD brings up a larger field-of-view image that is also reproduced in an earlier post by Ann in which it states it "is another image of NGC 6357, showing more of the cluster Pismis 24". The "showing more" would seem therefore to imply that the bright star in the APOD is part of Pismis 24. Thanks for any help.

owlice wrote:
I thought the throne thing you had going on was just a joke, too, but seeing was believing!

neufer wrote: And here I thought that that broomstick gag was just a joke.

Art Neuendorffer

P.S., Edward de Vere died on St. John's Day, 1604 and was subsequently deposed by a bald mountebank.

owlice wrote:

neufer wrote:
Russian legend tells of a witches' sabbath taking place on St. John's Night (June 23–24) on the Lysa Hora (Bald Mountain), near Kiev:

"So far as my memory doesn't deceive me, the witches used to gather on this mountain, gossip, play tricks and await their chief — Satan. On his arrival they, i.e. the witches, formed a circle round the throne on which he sat, in the form of a kid, and sang his praise. When Satan was worked up into a sufficient passion by the witches' praises, he gave the command for the sabbath, in which he chose for himself the witches who caught his fancy."

The Stokowski arrangements are only rarely heard today.

The NSO performed the Stokowski arrangement summer of last year at Wolf Trap.
It was great fun! Also on the program, Carmina Burana. Fun, fun program!

neufer wrote:The Stokowski arrangements are only rarely heard today, Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestratrion being the concert favorite.

APOD Robot wrote:
<<NGC 6357 houses the open star cluster Pismis 24, home to many of these tremendously bright and blue stars. The central part of NGC 6357 shown spans about 10 light years and lies about 8,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Scorpion.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutum%E2%80%93Centaurus_Arm wrote:
<<The Scutum–Centaurus Arm (also known as Scutum-Crux arm), is a long, diffuse curving streamer of stars, gas and dust that spirals outward from the proximate end of the long Milky Way bar. As the Milky Way is classified as a barred spiral galaxy, this feature is termed a spiral arm. It is one of two major spiral arms, and it lies between the minor Carina–Sagittarius Arm and Perseus Arm—the second major arm. The Scutum–Centaurus Arm arm starts near the core as the Scutum Arm, then gradually turns into the Centaurus Arm.

The region where the Scutum–Centaurus Arm arm connects to the bar of the galaxy is rich in star-forming regions. In 2006 a large cluster of new stars containing 14 red supergiant stars was discovered there and named RSGC1. In 2007 a cluster of approximately 50,000 newly formed stars named RSGC2 was located only a few hundred light years from RSGC1; it is thought to be less than 20 million years old and contains 26 red supergiant stars, the largest grouping of such stars known. Other clusters in this region include RSGC3 and Alicante 8.>>