APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

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APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by APOD Robot » Sun Jan 13, 2013 5:06 am

Image NGC 602 and Beyond

Explanation: Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning Hubble image of the region. Fantastic ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic radiation and shock waves from NGC 602's massive young stars have eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster's center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in the sharp Hubble view. The background galaxies are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by Beyond » Sun Jan 13, 2013 5:13 am

NGC 602 and Beyond :?: :?: I can see NGC 602... But i can't see me :!: Well, maybe next time.
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by geckzilla » Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:25 am

You are being Beyondocentric, Beyond. Not all Beyonds are Beyond, didn't you know?
Just call me "geck" because "zilla" is like a last name.

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by Ann » Sun Jan 13, 2013 9:24 am

Beyond wrote:NGC 602 and Beyond :?: :?: I can see NGC 602... But i can't see me :!: Well, maybe next time.
Image
Beyond, aren't you the guy who likes cowboy hats? I'm pretty sure I saw this hat-adorned figure :arrow: , although very much smaller and differently colored, inside the nebulosity of NGC 602. Clearly this guy is you! And I think I saw you at upper left... no, at lower right... Darn it! Now I can't find you!

Beyond, I'm sorry, but I think you may have galloped away! :cowboy:

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by Ann » Sun Jan 13, 2013 9:51 am

A great thing about this image is its fantastic portrait of young cluster NGC 602. In most pictures of young star clusters, the bright stars look so bright that they completely overwhelm the much more numerous, tiny low-mass stars that were also born in the particular star formation event that gave rise to the cluster as a whole. Another reason why it is hard to see the small cluster members is that the low-mass stars scatter easily, as the heftier stars play pin-ball with them.

But in NGC 602, the cluster is young enough that that the small low-mass stars haven't scattered much. Also, the fact that this is a V-Ha-I image, taken through green (555 nm), Ha + N II (658 nm) and infrared (814 nm) filters, means that the bright blue stars stand out well enough through the green filter, and the small low-mass stars show up pretty well though the infrared filter. So this Hubble image allows us to see the ten or so really bright stars in the cluster, while simultaneously admiring the multitude of small stars "swimming among the big fish".

The nebulosity around NGC 602 shows some fantastic ridges. This is clearly an unusually high-mass region of star formation, but there are other sites of star formation which show similar ridges in the nebulosity. See here, here, here, here and here. Obviously these ridges form when ultraviolet emission from rally high-mass stars slams into "walls" of nebulosity and starts eroding them.

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by orin stepanek » Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:57 pm

Fantastic picture! :D :thumb_up: :clap: :clap: :yes:
Orin

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by BDanielMayfield » Sun Jan 13, 2013 2:17 pm

Stunningly fantastic. My wife agrees and it's now our wallpaper.
Just as zero is not equal to infinity, everything coming from nothing is illogical.

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NGC 24601 and Beyond (a.k.a., Javert)

Post by neufer » Sun Jan 13, 2013 2:47 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
.
Beyond wrote:
NGC 602 and Beyond :?: :?:

I can see NGC 602... But i can't see me :!:

Well, maybe next time.
Well, I wouldn't forget you, Beyond. :wink:
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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by blastoff » Sun Jan 13, 2013 3:30 pm

these bright stars are all really outside our own galaxy? (understood that the magellanic clouds are relatively near.) are foreground (milky way) stars visible in this image? wow

Zuben L. Genubi

Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by Zuben L. Genubi » Sun Jan 13, 2013 4:24 pm

I'm surprised that this arrangement doesn't have a nickname. It looks like a Giant Clam with Pearls...

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by MargaritaMc » Sun Jan 13, 2013 4:30 pm

Does anyone know anything about the spiral galaxy that is like a catherine wheel in the bottom left hand quadrant of this photo?
Regarding the photo as a whole - my husband came into the room this morning to see me with eyes wide open (and mouth) as I was murmuring, "Oh! I'm in love!"
He brought me another coffee...
Starstruck of Tenerife (aka Margarita)

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by eltodesukane » Sun Jan 13, 2013 5:02 pm

Last edited by eltodesukane on Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:02 am, edited 2 times in total.

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NGC 602 in 3D

Post by neufer » Sun Jan 13, 2013 5:19 pm

http://www.universetoday.com/29223/bridge-between-the-stars-ngc-602-hubble-visualization-by-jukka-metsavainio/ wrote: Bridge Between the Stars – NGC 602:
Hubble Visualization by Jukka Metsavainio
by Tammy Plotner on April 16, 2009

<<It’s been awhile hasn’t it? Time may have passed, but absence makes the heart grow fonder. For those of you who have missed our very special dimensional looks into the Cosmos, then it’s high time we let our minds and eyes relax and we take a 200 thousand light-year distant journey towards the edge of the Small Magellanic Cloud for a look at a bright, young open cluster of stars known as NGC 602…

Whenever we present a dimensional visualization it is done in two fashions. The first is called “Parallel Vision” and it is much like a magic eye puzzle. When you open the full size image and your eyes are the correct distance from the screen, the images will seem to merge and create a 3D effect. However, for some folks, this doesn’t work well – so Jukka has also created the “Cross Version”, where you simply cross your eyes and the images will merge, creating a central image which appears 3D. Upon further study, we’ve also come to realize that there is a certain percentage of people who also are unable to make this happen as well. You aren’t weird – just a percentage. Here’s why…

Typical for hunting animals (as opposed to ‘prey’ animals), we have our eyes set in the front of our heads. Our eyes are typically about 2½ inches apart, and so they see slightly different versions of the scene in front of them, from which the visual part of our brain constructs an internal three-dimensional model. Thus a human being can directly estimate the distance of something without moving a muscle – an important evolutionary advantage for a hunter. The trick is to then ‘fool’ the brain into processing the photographic images as if they really were distant scenes, not just color photos a few inches away. First, you will need a piece of white card, about 12 inches long. You hold the card vertically between your eyes and the pictures, so that it touches the centerline of the stereo pairs. Next? A pair of cheap reading glasses. If you usually have to wear reading glasses then you’ll need a higher power. Try different pairs in the store until you find one that will allow you see sharply no further away than a little over 12 inches. That’s it! Then sit back, relax and prepare to be blown away…
Cruising along some 200 thousand light-years away from the Milky Way is the Small Magellanic Cloud – a satellite galaxy of ours. Sitting on its edge is cloud of gas and dust which comprise a nebula known as M90, and within it shines a sparkling cluster of new stars called NGC 602. But these new stars aren’t shy… They’re hot and massive. The radiation and shock waves which pour from them have pushed the nebula away, compressing it and triggering new star formation. While these pre-main sequence embryonic suns lay hidden to all but infrared wavelengths, the beauty of this area is the chemical properties it shares with our own galaxy.

According to the studies of L.R. Carlson (et al) NGC 602′s star formation at a low chemical abundance makes it a “good analog to the early universe in terms of examining the processes and patterns of star formation. This cluster in particular is ideally suited to this aim. Its location in the wing of the SMC means that, while its chemical properties should be similar to those of the rest of the galaxy, it is relatively isolated.” Isolated… But young, very young. Says Carlson, “This pre-Main Sequence population formed coevally with the central cluster about 5 million years ago. Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) images of the region in all four Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) bands reveal a second population of Young Stellar Objects (YSOs), which formed after the stars seen with HST/ACS imaging. Some of these very young objects are still embedded in nebular material. We infer that star formation started in this region less than five million years ago with the formation of the central cluster and gradually propagated towards the outskirts where we find evidence of on going star formation less than a million years old.”

Another interesting factor is NGC 602′s position in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud leading to the Magellanic Bridge – a stream of neutral hydrogen which connects the two Magellanic Clouds like a invisible cord. While it’s mostly comprised of low-metallicity gas there have been two early-type stars found inside it. The Magellanic Bridge is also a favored region for investigations of interstellar gas and star formation in very low metallicity region… Much like the home of our bright young cluster. Why is this so fascinating? Because studying star formation in regions like this gives astronomers a look at what may happen during galaxy formation – long before heavier elements are created from successive generations of stars undergoing nuclear fusion.

So, as you look deep into this bridge between the stars, gaze with wonder at the long “elephant trunks” of dust and turn your mind towards these beautiful, bright blue stars still forming from gravitationally collapsing gas clouds. It is a very unique event, occurring where it should not happen – but is. A true bridge between the stars… And touchstone to the Cosmos.>>
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by LocalColor » Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:13 pm

Wonderful image. Looks like the classic "Man in the Moon" crescent.

Image

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by Moonlady » Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:30 pm

Its beautiful! I see this APOD for the first time and its breathtaking ♥

Neufer thanks for the images, I am glad I can see 3D by eyes crossing and the APOD this way is WOW!!!

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by neufer » Sun Jan 13, 2013 7:01 pm

MargaritaMc wrote:
Does anyone know anything about the spiral galaxy that is like a catherine wheel in the bottom left hand quadrant of this photo?
Just its name: USNOA2 0150-01024626 (Or is that a nearby star name :?: )

(using WIKISKY: http://server7.wikisky.org/starview?obj ... =202351218)

(Aren't you glad you asked. :wink: )
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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by owlice » Sun Jan 13, 2013 7:20 pm

A WOW from me, too; thanks for that, neufer!

I love this image, whether 2D or 3!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by MargaritaMc » Sun Jan 13, 2013 7:35 pm

"(Aren't you glad you asked. )"

Yes, I am! It led to my learning about wikisky, and to my searching for what USNOA2 stands for and discovered that "USNO-A2.0 is a catalog of 526,280,881 stars," (http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/catalogs/ua2.html)

It is the final 1 that delights me - no sloppiness, like saying "approximately half a billion stars". God may number the sparrows and the hairs on our heads... but the US Navy (I'm presuming that is what USNO stands for) numbers every star.

But, mmm, that lovely catherine wheel is a galaxy - and the USNOA2 speak firmly of "stars"...
Margarita

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by Beyond » Sun Jan 13, 2013 7:39 pm

geckzilla wrote:You are being Beyondocentric, Beyond. Not all Beyonds are Beyond, didn't you know?
Beyondocentric... sounds interesting. I can only judge *my* Beyond by *my* Beyond, which seems to be beyond all other beyonds. Sometimes i am just beyond myself. :lol2:
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by Beyond » Sun Jan 13, 2013 7:53 pm

Ann wrote:
Beyond wrote:NGC 602 and Beyond :?: :?: I can see NGC 602... But i can't see me :!: Well, maybe next time.
Image
Beyond, aren't you the guy who likes cowboy hats? I'm pretty sure I saw this hat-adorned figure :arrow: , although very much smaller and differently colored, inside the nebulosity of NGC 602. Clearly this guy is you! And I think I saw you at upper left... no, at lower right... Darn it! Now I can't find you!

Beyond, I'm sorry, but I think you may have galloped away! :cowboy:

Ann
:cowboy: YEE-HAA!! Well, howdy there school marm. I think you may have mistaken EMC, the Equine Locutionist for me. I think he may sometimes wear cowboy hats when he's out and about, galloping on his avatar... The Horse-Head Nubula. :yes:
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.

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Re: NGC 24601 and Beyond (a.k.a., Javert)

Post by Beyond » Sun Jan 13, 2013 7:58 pm

neufer wrote:
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
.
Beyond wrote:
NGC 602 and Beyond :?: :?:

I can see NGC 602... But i can't see me :!:

Well, maybe next time.
Well, I wouldn't forget you, Beyond. :wink:
Well, thanks, i think. :wink: :wink:
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.

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Snake headed NGC 602 is in the center of Hydrus

Post by neufer » Sun Jan 13, 2013 8:06 pm

http://www.universetoday.com/29223/bridge-between-the-stars-ngc-602-hubble-visualization-by-jukka-metsavainio/ wrote:
[img3="Master Yo throwing Foo-Pies.
"Foo Pih" (γ Hyi) is only star in Hydrus
that anyone seems to have named.
"]http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... px-Pie.PNG[/img3]
Bridge Between the Stars – NGC 602: Hubble Visualization by Jukka Metsavainio
by Tammy Plotner on April 16, 2009

<<Another interesting factor is NGC 602′s position in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud leading to the "Magellanic Bridge" – a stream of neutral hydrogen which connects the two Magellanic Clouds like a invisible cord. While it’s mostly comprised of low-metallicity gas there have been two early-type stars found inside it. The Magellanic Bridge is also a favored region for investigations of interstellar gas and star formation in very low metallicity region… Much like the home of our bright young cluster. Why is this so fascinating? Because studying star formation in regions like this gives astronomers a look at what may happen during galaxy formation – long before heavier elements are created from successive generations of stars undergoing nuclear fusion.>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrus wrote:
[img3="The "Magellanic Bridge" stream of neutral hydrogen
connects the Small Magellanic Cloud “Nubecula Minor”
with the Large Magellanic Cloud "Nubecula Major"
approximately where the name "HYDRUS" is printed
by Johann Bode in his Uranographia (1801)
"]http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/image/hydrus.JPG[/img3]
<<Hydrus is a small constellation in the southern sky, created in the sixteenth century. Its name means "male water snake", and it should not be confused with Hydra, a much larger constellation which represents a female water snake. Hydrus was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman and it first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 (or 1598) in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in Johann Bayer's Uranometria of 1603. The companion to Hydra, the female water snake, he is forced to journey through Eridanus, Orion, and the Milky Way to visit his lover.

Hydra does not contain any particularly bright stars. Beta Hydri, the brightest star in Hydrus, is a yellow star of magnitude 2.8, 24 light-years from Earth. Alpha Hydri is a white main-sequence star of magnitude 2.9, 71 light-years from Earth. Gamma Hydri "Foo Pih" is a red giant of magnitude 3.2, 214 light-years from Earth. There is one notable double star in Hydrus. Pi Hydri, composed of Pi1 Hydri and Pi2 Hydri, is divisible in binoculars. Pi1 is a red star of magnitude 5.6, 740 light-years from Earth. Pi2 is an orange star of magnitude 5.7, 468 light-years from Earth.

In August 2010, a European astronomical team working at the La Silla Observatory in Chile announced that they had confirmed the presence of at least five planets orbiting the star HD 10180 in Hydrus.
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by Chris Peterson » Sun Jan 13, 2013 10:14 pm

Ann wrote:Beyond, aren't you the guy who likes cowboy hats?

Image
LM2_0152p.jpg
Usually when somebody is talking about a string bean in a cowboy hat on a horse, they're thinking of me...
Chris

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by MargaritaMc » Sun Jan 13, 2013 10:41 pm

:?: :!: :cowboy: :?: :!:
I can do smileys - But HOW do you post pictures? :shock: :?:
Is there a beginners' guide to this Advanced Stuff?
Bemused of Tenerife
aka Margarita :mrgreen:


ps. Hey look! I've been promoted! I'M AN ENSIGN ALREADY! :D
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
&mdash; Dr Debra M. Elmegreen, Fellow of the AAAS

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Re: APOD: NGC 602 and Beyond (2013 Jan 13)

Post by neufer » Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:18 pm

MargaritaMc wrote::?: :!: :cowboy: :?: :!:

Hey look! I've been promoted! I'M AN ENSIGN ALREADY! :D
  • Be prepared to be blown into space:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kim_%28Star_Trek%29 wrote: <<Ensign Harry S. L. Kim was born in 2349 in South Carolina. He played clarinet in the Juilliard Youth Symphony and had a girlfriend named Libby. After graduating from Starfleet Academy in 2370, his first assignment was as the Operations officer aboard the USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant. In "Deadlock", Voyager and its crew are duplicated. The original ship's version of Kim is blown into space; the other ship's duplicate of Kim replaces him shortly afterwards.

Kim is an ensign throughout the series' seven seasons.
...........................................................................................
Q: Did you feel Harry Kim got a bad deal, always being an Ensign?

Garrett Wang: Yes, I do think so. I asked somebody who was in the United States Navy, "You know, if you're a Ensign, seven years later, what rank are you?" He said, "Well, almost a Lieutenant Commander", which is what Tuvok was at the end, so it is a little annoying that I didn't get promoted. Everybody else was getting demoted, promoted or remoted, and they kept me [an Ensign]. I asked them once, "What is the deal with that?" and the producers were like, "Well someone's got to be the ensign," and I said,
"Oh thanks, thanks a lot, good answer, aaand, thanks for playing."
Art Neuendorffer

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