Explanation: East of Antares, dark markings sprawl through crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds include B59, B72, B77 and B78, seen in silhouette against the starry background. Here, their combined shape suggests a pipe stem and bowl, and so the dark nebula's popular name is the Pipe Nebula. The deep and expansive view was represents nearly 24 hours of exposure time recorded in very dark skies of the Chilean Atacama desert. It covers a full 10 by 10 degree field in the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus. The Pipe Nebula is part of the Ophiuchus dark cloud complex located at a distance of about 450 light-years. Dense cores of gas and dust within the Pipe Nebula are collapsing to form stars.
I must chuckle a little bit here. Usually starlight is described as X numbers of light years away and today's APOD we have a case of darkness being 150 light years away. It just struck my funny bone. Humor in the starship
"Chris Peterson found geckzilla guilty. This gave great joy to the bystanders."
PRONOUN, n. [L. pronomen; pro, for, and nomen,name.] (Webster's 1828 edition): In grammar, a word used instead of a noun or name, to prevent the repetition of it. The personal pronouns in English, are I, thou or you,he, she, we, ye and they. The last is used for the name of things, as well as for that of persons. Other words are used for the names of persons, things, sentences, phrases and for adjectives; and when they stand for sentences, phrases and adjectives, they are not strictly pronouns, but relatives, substitutes or representatives of such sentences. Thus we say, "the jury found the prisoner guilty, and the court pronounced sentence on him. This or that gave great joy to the spectators." In these sentences, this or that represents the whole preceding sentence, which is the proper antecedent.
LocalColor wrote:My goodness there are a LOT of little stars in this photo. Or is it dust? Gorgeous photo of the day!
All the bright points, even the really tiny little bright points, are stars. Although the Pipe Nebula itself does not belong to the central parts of the Milky Way, it is located between the ourselves and the galactic bulge. So when we look at the Pipe nebula we also look at parts of the galactic bulge, which contains billions of stars.
LocalColor wrote:
My goodness there are a LOT of little stars in this photo. Or is it dust? Gorgeous photo of the day!
All the bright points, even the really tiny little bright points, are stars. Although the Pipe Nebula itself does not belong to the central parts of the Milky Way, it is located between the ourselves and the galactic bulge. So when we look at the Pipe nebula we also look at parts of the galactic bulge, which contains billions of stars.
http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/antares.html wrote: Antares, with an uncertain mass of 15 to 18 solar masses, probably does not have much time left to it. It is massive enough someday to develop an iron core and eventually to explode as a brilliantsupernova.
That will blow the pipe-shaped dust bunnies away!!!
The Pipe Nebula
