by Ann » Fri Jul 10, 2015 5:48 am
This is a very nice and interesting infrared image. It's beautiful, too. I rarely find infrared images beautiful, because their mapped colors are usually so
sharp and glaring, with their colors so sharply separated, like a
child's painting. But today's image is not like that at all. The colors blend smoothly, displaying a rich palette.
The picture is very interesting, too. I assume that the bright star seen in the image is NU Orionis, the ionizing star of M43. It isn't obvious that a hot bright star will show up prominently in an infrared image. Of course, NU Orionis is a reddened star, with a positive B-V index, even though it is classified as an O9-type star. The reddening means that much of the energy it produces has been lost to us, and the light that reaches our eyes should be proportionally more infrared than if the star had been unreddened. But the way I understand it, the reddening shouldn't add any infrared light that wouldn't be there in an unreddened image. Perhaps I'm wrong about that.
I find it interesting that NU Orionis looks so much brighter than all the other stars in this image, even though all the other stars here are almost certainly cooler and therefore proportionally redder and more infrared than NU Orionis. This clearly proves that NU Orionis is the only really bright and massive star in M43. All the other stars here, certainly all the other stars in the "blue cavity", must be relatively small and cool. This configuration, with one bright star surrounded by many much smaller stars, reminds me of the Tau Canis Majoris cluster,
NGC 2362.
Speaking of the "blue cavity", I must say that the rim of it looks positively fascinating. There is splendid detail here!
There is star formation going on all along the "lower edge" of the dusty ridge in the lower part of the image. The most interesting site of star formation is the red and yellow-colored region at lower right. It could possibly be the birthplace of stars more massive than the Sun, but this is not certain.
This is a beautiful and interesting picture.
Ann
This is a very nice and interesting infrared image. It's beautiful, too. I rarely find infrared images beautiful, because their mapped colors are usually so [url=http://mightymega.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/space_image_chair_mat_5.jpg]sharp and glaring[/url], with their colors so sharply separated, like a [url=http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/764968/99097496/stock-photo-child-s-painting-on-paper-99097496.jpg]child's painting[/url]. But today's image is not like that at all. The colors blend smoothly, displaying a rich palette.
The picture is very interesting, too. I assume that the bright star seen in the image is NU Orionis, the ionizing star of M43. It isn't obvious that a hot bright star will show up prominently in an infrared image. Of course, NU Orionis is a reddened star, with a positive B-V index, even though it is classified as an O9-type star. The reddening means that much of the energy it produces has been lost to us, and the light that reaches our eyes should be proportionally more infrared than if the star had been unreddened. But the way I understand it, the reddening shouldn't add any infrared light that wouldn't be there in an unreddened image. Perhaps I'm wrong about that.
I find it interesting that NU Orionis looks so much brighter than all the other stars in this image, even though all the other stars here are almost certainly cooler and therefore proportionally redder and more infrared than NU Orionis. This clearly proves that NU Orionis is the only really bright and massive star in M43. All the other stars here, certainly all the other stars in the "blue cavity", must be relatively small and cool. This configuration, with one bright star surrounded by many much smaller stars, reminds me of the Tau Canis Majoris cluster, [url=http://www.oocities.org/hwy37/deepsky/ngc2362-18012006.jpg]NGC 2362[/url].
Speaking of the "blue cavity", I must say that the rim of it looks positively fascinating. There is splendid detail here!
There is star formation going on all along the "lower edge" of the dusty ridge in the lower part of the image. The most interesting site of star formation is the red and yellow-colored region at lower right. It could possibly be the birthplace of stars more massive than the Sun, but this is not certain.
This is a beautiful and interesting picture.
Ann