APOD: The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and... (2019 Sep 25)

[APOD Robot]

The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars

Explanation: The Pelican Nebula is slowly being transformed. IC 5070, the official designation, is divided from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. The Pelican, however, receives much study because it is a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The featured picture was produced in three specific colors -- light emitted by sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen -- that can help us to better understand these interactions. The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming the cold gas to hot gas, with the advancing boundary between the two, known as an ionization front, visible in bright orange on the right. Particularly dense tentacles of cold gas remain. Millions of years from now this nebula might no longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance and placement of stars and gas will surely leave something that appears completely different.

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[Boomer12k]

Reminds me of a Sunset... really nice.

:---[===] *

[Geo]

Looks more like a duck to me.

[De58te]

On the subject of millions of years from now this astronomical object will be called something different, let's play, think of other things millions of years from now that might be called something different. Millions of years from now the asterism Big Dipper won't look like a Big Dipper anymore as the stars are moving apart. Millions of years from now the planet Mars won't have two moons. Millions of years from now the giant star Betelgeuse won't be so giant anymore. Millions of years from now the planet Saturn won't have any rings. Millions of years from now, well I better stop before I drive you crazy.

[orin stepanek]

New view for me! I'm used to seeing the pelican next to the North American Nebula!

Pelican_Akar_960.jpg (54.42 KiB) Viewed 3155 times

Beautiful photo though!

[BDanielMayfield]

Millions of years from now the planet Saturn won't have any rings.

I wondered about that part of your comment, and came up with this:

Estimates of the age of Saturn's rings vary widely, depending on the approach used. They have been considered to possibly be very old, dating to the formation of Saturn itself. However, data from Cassini suggest they are much younger, having most likely formed within the last 100 million years, and may thus be between 10 million and 100 million years old.[3][35] This recent origin scenario is based on a new, low mass estimate, modeling of the rings' dynamical evolution, and measurements of the flux of interplanetary dust, which feed into an estimate of the rate of ring darkening over time.[3] Since the rings are continually losing material, they would have been more massive in the past than at present.[3] The mass estimate alone is not very diagnostic, since high mass rings that formed early in the Solar System's history would have evolved by now to a mass close to that measured.[3] Based on current depletion rates, they may disappear in 300 million years.[23]

So Saturn's rings are also sure to be still around for millions of years too.

[Ann]

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The Pelican Nebula. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

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The Pelican Nebula. Photo: Yannick Akar.

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We're used to seeing the Pelican in the Pelican Nebula looking left. But now we've got a Pelican that is looking right. Look at the light blue part of it! Except I don't think it's pelican any more. If its snout had been shorter, I think it might have been the Easter Bunny in the Sky.

Here on Earth, we'll have to make do with the Easter Bunny in a basket full of candy eggs.

Ann

[TheZuke!]

And Antarctica looks like a rubber ducky!