by Ann » Sat Oct 12, 2013 5:17 am
This is a fascinating and beautiful image. The objects look downright mysterious, as if they were a gathering of spirits wandering the vastness of the universe. In reality, of course, they are just a fragmented cloud of gas and dust being sculpted by the ultraviolet radiation and stellar wind of one or more hot stars.
As for the colors (since I am the self-appointed color commentator), they look a little different from those seen in most portraits of cometary globules today. But as far as I can understand, Robert Gendler has used old blue and red photographic plates of this region and then combined the plates into this image. This process is different from how most images are made today, which explains why they look different. But in any case, the red parts of the globules certainly glow red from Ha emission, the most common red color in the universe. The globules give off this red light as hydrogen in them is being ionized by the hot stars that sculpted these globules in the first place.
Ann
This is a fascinating and beautiful image. The objects look downright mysterious, as if they were a gathering of spirits wandering the vastness of the universe. In reality, of course, they are just a fragmented cloud of gas and dust being sculpted by the ultraviolet radiation and stellar wind of one or more hot stars.
As for the colors (since I am the self-appointed color commentator), they look a little different from those seen in most portraits of cometary globules today. But as far as I can understand, Robert Gendler has used old blue and red photographic plates of this region and then combined the plates into this image. This process is different from how most images are made today, which explains why they look different. But in any case, the red parts of the globules certainly glow red from Ha emission, the most common red color in the universe. The globules give off this red light as hydrogen in them is being ionized by the hot stars that sculpted these globules in the first place.
Ann