Starship Asterisk*

IC 1871: Inside the Soul Nebula

Explanation: This cosmic close-up looks deep inside the Soul Nebula. The dark and brooding dust clouds on the left, outlined by bright ridges of glowing gas, are cataloged as IC 1871. About 25 light-years across, the telescopic field of view spans only a small part of the much larger Heart and Soul nebulae. At an estimated distance of 6,500 light-years the star-forming complex lies within the Perseus spiral arm of our Milky Way Galaxy, seen in planet Earth's skies toward the constellation Cassiopeia. An example of triggered star formation, the dense star-forming clouds of IC 1871 are themselves sculpted by the intense winds and radiation of the region's massive young stars. The featured image appears mostly red due to the emission of a specific color of light emitted by excited hydrogen gas.

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A beautiful RGB (+ Hα) picture of a nebula! I love it!

My favorite aspect of the Soul Nebula is probably the "little man" made of dark dust that can be seen at about 2 o'clock in today's APOD. He seems to be sitting between the gaping jaws of a terrible red monster that is about to eat him! Jaws in space!

In the non-RGB picture at left, the "little man" is at top left, trying to escape the cosmic shark that is about to gobble him up.















My second favorite aspect of the Soul Nebula is that the nebula as a whole really looks like a baby in space. The picture at right really carries the caption "Interstellar embryo IC 1848 the Soul Nebula Poster Print".

(I know, I know - pareidolia!)

But hey, don't spend too much time looking at the pictures I have posted. Look at the APOD itself, because it is really glorious!

Ann

Moves....my soul...

I was out for a drive a couple of days ago, a little before sunset... the cloud tops were lit up and it reminded me of pictures like this with glowing ridges around sculpted shapes...I guess concepts are constant.

:---[===] *

Why are there no Proplyds in the images of the Soul nebula (or the Heart) ? Is it because the Perseus arm is too far for such images ?

Ann wrote: ↑Wed Nov 28, 2018 5:56 am A beautiful RGB (+ Hα) picture of a nebula! I love it!

And O[III] as well.

edgardine wrote: ↑Wed Nov 28, 2018 12:16 pm Why are there no Proplyds in the images of the Soul nebula (or the Heart) ? Is it because the Perseus arm is too far for such images ?

Sorry, I'll try again...

https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic0917/

"Also known as proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, these modest blobs surrounding baby stars are shedding light on the mechanism behind planet formation. Only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with its high resolution and sensitivity, can take such detailed pictures of circumstellar discs at optical wavelengths."

Proplyds may be in the APOD photo, but they're too small.

The photo appears to be mirror-reversed.

I like the Dust Gorilla staring at the hot young star that is creating a cavern in the beautiful nebula.

[attachment=0]Gorilla dust cloud.jpg[/attachment]

NHcycler wrote: ↑Wed Nov 28, 2018 5:01 pm

edgardine wrote: ↑Wed Nov 28, 2018 12:16 pm Why are there no Proplyds in the images of the Soul nebula (or the Heart) ? Is it because the Perseus arm is too far for such images ?

Sorry, I'll try again...

https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic0917/

"Also known as proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, these modest blobs surrounding baby stars are shedding light on the mechanism behind planet formation. Only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with its high resolution and sensitivity, can take such detailed pictures of circumstellar discs at optical wavelengths."

Proplyds may be in the APOD photo, but they're too small.

According to the caption of today's APOD, the distance to the Soul Nebula is about 6,500 light-years. That makes it more than four times farther away than the Orion Nebula at 1,344 ± 20 light years. Also the Soul Nebula is bigger than the the Orion Nebula at some 150 light years across, versus about 24 light-years across for the Orion Nebula.

Your best chance of spotting proplyds in the Soul Nebula is probably by looking at an infrared photo. If you go the Wikipedia page for the Soul Nebula, you will find a Spitzer Space Telescope photo of the Soul Nebula there. Maybe you can spot some proplyds in the Spitzer image?

Ann

Ann wrote: ↑Thu Nov 29, 2018 2:31 am
Your best chance of spotting proplyds in the Soul Nebula is probably by looking at an infrared photo. If you go the Wikipedia page for the Soul Nebula, you will find a Spitzer Space Telescope photo of the Soul Nebula there. Maybe you can spot some proplyds in the Spitzer image?

Say "spotting Spitzer proplyds" six times fast.