APOD: The Shark Nebula (2015 Sep 07)

[APOD Robot]

The Shark Nebula

Explanation: There is no sea on Earth large enough to contain the Shark nebula. This predator apparition poses us no danger, though, as it is composed only of interstellar gas and dust. Dark dust like that featured here is somewhat like cigarette smoke and created in the cool atmospheres of giant stars. After being expelled with gas and gravitationally recondensing, massive stars may carve intricate structures into their birth cloud using their high energy light and fast stellar winds as sculpting tools. The heat they generate evaporates the murky molecular cloud as well as causing ambient hydrogen gas to disperse and glow red. During disintegration, we humans can enjoy imagining these great clouds as common icons, like we do for water clouds on Earth. Including smaller dust nebulae such as Lynds Dark Nebula 1235 and Van den Bergh 149 & 150, the Shark nebula spans about 15 light years and lies about 650 light years away toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia (Cepheus).

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[Nighteyes]

APO continues to inform, thanks.

[saturno2]

Good image

[Anon]

Reminds me of the smoke from a dying ember - in September, in the rain.

[Ann]

It is fascinating to think that the Shark Nebula and others of its kind are so incredibly tenuous that we'd better be many light-years away from them if we want to make out their presence at all.

Nice image.

Ann

[Pit]

Wheee. Took me a while to locate the area on the sky map, as there was no mention of the FOV and no really well-known object in

Really beautiful image, and even more remarkable if you follow the link to the authors page to find this is a +13h exposure...
Great work

[starsurfer]

A magnificent image of a lovely dust cloud, one of many to be found in the constellation of Cepheus. The vdB catalogue is one of my favourite deep sky object catalogues along with the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies and the Abell planetary nebula catalogue, coincidentally all of them were published in 1966. Since I can't resist including a list, here's a list of some of my favourite objects from each:

vdB:
1. vdB1 by Adam Block
2. vdB4 by Antonio Sánchez
3. vdB152 by Jimmy Walker

Arp Atlas:
1. Arp 65 by Capella Observatory
2. Arp 104 by Adam Block
3. Arp 295 by CHART32

Abell planetary nebulae:
1. Abell 21 by Ken Crawford
2. Abell 31 by Don Goldman
3. Abell 78 by Capella Observatory

[Ann]

Thanks, starsurfer, I love the list!

Here are a few Arp favorites of mine:

Arp 256, so graceful!

Arp 272, note that there are three and just possibly four galaxies interacting here!

Arp 148, Mayall's Object, who can resist it?

Arp 147, when Mayall's Object is taken apart!

Arp 194, and there are so many others...

Ann

EDIT: I've changed my mind about Arp 272. There are "only" three galaxies interacting here, but in the "gap" between spiral arms we are seeing a background spiral galaxy interacting with a smaller galaxy. So all in all, we are seeing three plus two galaxies interacting with each other in the cosmic tangle known as Arp 272.

[neufer]

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[ta152h0]

Thank you Mr Neuendorffer. I was going to consume a bottle of antique wine and see is I can spot the shark. Like vintage wine from this era of naming things in the sky. " oh look man, there is a shark "

[starsurfer]

Thanks, starsurfer, I love the list!

Here are a few Arp favorites of mine:

Arp 256, so graceful!

Arp 272, note that there are three and just possibly four galaxies interacting here!

Arp 148, Mayall's Object, who can resist it?

Arp 147, when Mayall's Object is taken apart!

Arp 194, and there are so many others...

Ann

EDIT: I've changed my mind about Arp 272. There are "only" three galaxies interacting here, but in the "gap" between spiral arms we are seeing a background spiral galaxy interacting with a smaller galaxy. So all in all, we are seeing three plus two galaxies interacting with each other in the cosmic tangle known as Arp 272.

Well obviously I have more than 3 favourite Arps, in fact too many to list! Arp 272 is an incredible interacting merger but the whole Hercules Galaxy Cluster it belongs to is full of many peculiar galaxies! Also I would think of Arp 147 as being Mayall's Object before the two galaxies collide together.