APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

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APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

Post by APOD Robot » Tue Nov 18, 2014 5:06 am

Image Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula

Explanation: Dusty emission in the Tadpole nebula, IC 410, lies about 12,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Auriga. The cloud of glowing gas is over 100 light-years across, sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from embedded open star cluster NGC 1893. Formed in the interstellar cloud a mere 4 million years ago, bright cluster stars are seen all around the star-forming nebula. Notable near the image center are two relatively dense streamers of material trailing away from the nebula's central regions. Potentially sites of ongoing star formation in IC 410, these cosmic tadpole shapes are about 10 light-years long. The featured image was taken in infrared light by NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite.

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Re: APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

Post by starsurfer » Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:49 pm

It's always nice to see infrared images of starforming regions! It's also nice to see it referred to as the Tadpole Nebula (a name which should be more popular than IC 410). You can see an optical image by Russell Croman here.

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Re: APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

Post by Boomer12k » Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:27 pm

Awesome.... a "fiery" pit of Creation...At 4 mil. yrs. old, I wonder if we could see proto-planetary disks???

Great image.
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Re: APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

Post by Ron-Astro Pharmacist » Tue Nov 18, 2014 4:07 pm

Is the star effect (diffraction spikes and a circle) new? I first noticed this about a week ago in "Orion, Gas, Dust and Stars." I've only seen diffraction spike by themselves before that I can recall.

And what is that object in the lower right? It appears mirrored about midway up the photo above when the image is magnified.
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Re: APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

Post by Chris Peterson » Tue Nov 18, 2014 4:34 pm

Boomer12k wrote:Awesome.... a "fiery" pit of Creation...At 4 mil. yrs. old, I wonder if we could see proto-planetary disks???
Not at 12,000 ly distance with our current technology.
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Re: APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

Post by Chris Peterson » Tue Nov 18, 2014 4:39 pm

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:Is the star effect (diffraction spikes and a circle) new? I first noticed this about a week ago in "Orion, Gas, Dust and Stars." I've only seen diffraction spike by themselves before that I can recall.

And what is that object in the lower right? It appears mirrored about midway up the photo above when the image is magnified.
Regrettably, there appears to be no technical information about this image at all (I wish such images were rejected for APOD consideration). Therefore, we can't easily access the original data or know the mapping between filters and colors. So basically, all we get is a pretty picture that teaches us little. And which makes it hard to answer good questions like you ask.
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Re: APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

Post by Ron-Astro Pharmacist » Tue Nov 18, 2014 7:08 pm

It is a beautiful image today. Besides fiery - it presents as a "Cradle of Creation." The cradle's yin-yang shape could express the transition of cold dust into hot stars that would lend it quite the touch of artistry. It’s a gorgeous mix of colors I would love to one day re-create somehow in stained glass should I ever become as ambitious as today's "imaganeer" - if I might coin a term. There should be a real name for those with the skill to produce such aesthetics besides my Disney-like neologism. (I love Google-ogling for new words [if you couldn't tell ]or would that be neologic Google-ogling? :roll: )

Either way today's APOD is a "Tad" cool for school..
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Re: APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

Post by geckzilla » Tue Nov 18, 2014 10:21 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:Is the star effect (diffraction spikes and a circle) new? I first noticed this about a week ago in "Orion, Gas, Dust and Stars." I've only seen diffraction spike by themselves before that I can recall.

And what is that object in the lower right? It appears mirrored about midway up the photo above when the image is magnified.
Regrettably, there appears to be no technical information about this image at all (I wish such images were rejected for APOD consideration). Therefore, we can't easily access the original data or know the mapping between filters and colors. So basically, all we get is a pretty picture that teaches us little. And which makes it hard to answer good questions like you ask.
I'm willing to say that it is very likely the diffraction spikes that also include a circle are fake. Looking at the large size image, you can even see the real diffraction spikes underneath the fake ones. Note also the diffraction spikes emanating from the two stars outside the field at the upper left and lower right. Those are definitely real diffraction spikes. Note that they are much less crisp looking. They are a bit blurry for the same reason the stars are blurry: atmospheric distortions. So for this reason I say that the very crisp, sharp spikes are generated.

The small cyan colored thing on the right is almost certainly an artifact and if I had to guess I would say the lower one is being caused by the bright star off the right side of the image. The upper one is probably also caused by a bright star which you can just barely see off the edge directly horizontal to it, as with the first one.
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Re: APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

Post by Ron-Astro Pharmacist » Thu Nov 20, 2014 6:09 pm

Are you sure it's not an alien spacecraft caught, just dropping out of some sort of a warp drive, leaving a light echo from its origination point long ago? Naw – it's probably an artifact. Thanks Geck for checking into it and Chris for your comments.
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Re: APOD: Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula (2014 Nov 18)

Post by Ron-Astro Pharmacist » Thu Nov 20, 2014 6:12 pm

Sorry - Hypertexting needs some work :oops:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_echo
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