APOD: Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud (2019 Nov 17)

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APOD: Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud (2019 Nov 17)

Post by APOD Robot » Sun Nov 17, 2019 5:07 am

Image Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud

Explanation: How do stars form? To help find out, astronomers created this tantalizing false-color composition of dust clouds and embedded newborn stars in infrared wavelengths with WISE, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The cosmic canvas features one of the closest star forming regions, part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex some 400 light-years distant near the southern edge of the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus. After forming along a large cloud of cold molecular hydrogen gas, young stars heat the surrounding dust to produce the infrared glow. Stars in the process of formation, called young stellar objects or YSOs, are embedded in the compact pinkish nebulae seen here, but are otherwise hidden from the prying eyes of optical telescopes. An exploration of the region in penetrating infrared light has detected emerging and newly formed stars whose average age is estimated to be a mere 300,000 years. That's extremely young compared to the Sun's age of 5 billion years. The prominent reddish nebula at the lower right surrounding the star Sigma Scorpii is a reflection nebula produced by dust scattering starlight. This view from WISE, released in 2012, spans almost 2 degrees and covers about 14 light-years at the estimated distance of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud.

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Ann
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Re: APOD: Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud (2019 Nov 17)

Post by Ann » Sun Nov 17, 2019 6:05 am

Star forming region in Rho Ophiuchi and Sigma Scorpii.
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, WISE
Antares and Rho Ophiuchi region in optical light,
with star forming region and Sigma Scorpii. Photo: Fred Espenak.






















I posted the pictures above to show you where today's APOD is located. Sigma Scorpii, which is so prominent and red in today's APOD, can be seen at 4 o'clock in Fred Espenak's picture. The star forming region is the dusty whitish region above center in the picture.
Wikipedia wrote:

A total of 425 infrared sources have been detected near the L1688 cloud. These are presumed to be young stellar objects, including 16 classified as protostars, 123 T Tauri stars with dense circumstellar disks, and 77 weaker T Tauri stars with thinner disks.[2] The last two categories of stars have estimated ages ranging from 100,000 to a million years.[7]

The first brown dwarf to be identified in a star-forming region was Rho Oph J162349.8-242601, located in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud.[better source needed][8] One of the older objects at the edge of the primary star-forming region was found to be a circumstellar disk seen nearly edge on. It spans a diameter of 300 AU and contains at least twice the mass of Jupiter. The million-year-old star at the center of the disk has a temperature of 3,000 K and is emitting 0.4 times the luminosity of the Sun.
Okay, so we have T Tauri stars in the star forming region of Rho Ophiuchi, as well as a million-year-old star emitting 0.4 the luminosity of the Sun, and a brown dwarf. Translation: The star forming cloud in Rho Ophiuchi is a place where itty bitty low-mass stars are born.

A snake-like object in the Milky Way with a massive star in its belly.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
So I have to show you something better, of course, a place where massive stars are born! How about a celestial snake?
NASA wrote:

Something scary appears to be slithering across the plane of our Milky Way galaxy in this new Halloween image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The snake-like object is actually the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers say its "belly" may be harboring beastly stars in the process of forming.
...
Spitzer's new view of the snake provides the best look at what lurks inside. The yellow and orange spots located on and around it are massive stars just beginning to take shape. The bright red spot located on its belly is a monstrous stellar embryo, with about 20 to 50 times the mass of our sun.
Ann
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Re: APOD: Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud (2019 Nov 17)

Post by sillyworm 2 » Sun Nov 17, 2019 1:09 pm

There is an interesting PDF in the exploration link.

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Re: APOD: Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud (2019 Nov 17)

Post by orin stepanek » Sun Nov 17, 2019 1:15 pm

Colorful APOD today! 8-) I like it!
Orin

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Re: APOD: Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud (2019 Nov 17)

Post by Boomer12k » Sun Nov 17, 2019 11:34 pm

Ohhhh..... it's a BABY PICTURE.... awwwwwww....cuuute...

Great image...
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Re: APOD: Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud (2019 Nov 17)

Post by neufer » Mon Nov 18, 2019 3:17 am

Boomer12k wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2019 11:34 pm
Ohhhh..... it's a BABY PICTURE.... awwwwwww....cuuute...
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: APOD: Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud (2019 Nov 17)

Post by orin stepanek » Wed Nov 20, 2019 11:59 am

I think it's like the artist took different colors and splasked
them on his canvas; and it turned out beautiful!!! 8-)
RhoOph_WISE_960.jpg
RhoOph_WISE_960.jpg (38.92 KiB) Viewed 2226 times
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

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