APOD: The Pencil Nebula in Red and Blue (2018 Aug 13)

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APOD: The Pencil Nebula in Red and Blue (2018 Aug 13)

Post by APOD Robot » Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:06 am

Image The Pencil Nebula in Red and Blue

Explanation: This shock wave plows through interstellar space at over 500,000 kilometers per hour. Near the top and moving up in this sharply detailed color composite, thin, bright, braided filaments are actually long ripples in a cosmic sheet of glowing gas seen almost edge-on. Cataloged as NGC 2736, its elongated appearance suggests its popular name, the Pencil Nebula. The Pencil Nebula is about 5 light-years long and 800 light-years away, but represents only a small part of the Vela supernova remnant. The Vela remnant itself is around 100 light-years in diameter, the expanding debris cloud of a star that was seen to explode about 11,000 years ago. Initially, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometers per hour but has slowed considerably, sweeping up surrounding interstellar material. In the featured narrow-band, wide field image, red and blue colors track the characteristic glow of ionized hydrogen and oxygen atoms, respectively.

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prune face

Re: APOD: The Pencil Nebula in Red and Blue (2018 Aug 13)

Post by prune face » Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:14 pm

Boston Blackie eat your heart out

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Re: APOD: The Pencil Nebula in Red and Blue (2018 Aug 13)

Post by Boomer12k » Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:11 pm

How about "The Skull" just below it, on the left....

OK...here is one for you.... stand up...walk away from the computer with the picture on the screen...maybe 10 feet or so, maybe off to the left...tell me it does not look like a "red eyed dinosaur head"...or a "bird head"....

Really nice close up and detail...

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