APOD: Fleming's Triangular Wisp (2021 Jul 27)

[APOD Robot]

Fleming's Triangular Wisp

Explanation: Chaotic in appearance, these tangled filaments of shocked, glowing gas are spread across planet Earth's sky toward the constellation of Cygnus as part of the Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, an expanding cloud born of the death explosion of a massive star. Light from the original supernova explosion likely reached Earth over 5,000 years ago. The glowing filaments are really more like long ripples in a sheet seen almost edge on, remarkably well separated into the glow of ionized hydrogen atoms shown in blue and oxygen in red hues. Also known as the Cygnus Loop and cataloged as NGC 6979, the Veil Nebula now spans about 6 times the diameter of the full Moon. The length of the wisp corresponds to about 30 light years, given its estimated distance of 2,400 light years. Often identified as Pickering's Triangle for a director of Harvard College Observatory, it is also named for its discoverer, astronomer Williamina Fleming, as Fleming's Triangular Wisp.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[VictorBorun]

FlemingsTriangle.png

what's that thing perpendicular to the wave front?

[neufer]

wisp (n.) early 14c., "handful or bundle of hay, grass, etc.," used for burning or cleaning or as a cushion; perhaps from an unrecorded Old English word, cognate with Norwegian and Swedish visp "wisp," of unknown origin; sometimes said to be connected with whisk or with Middle Low German and Middle Dutch wispel "a measure of grain." Meaning "thin, filmy portion" first attested 1836.
....................................................................
whisk (n.) late 14c., "quick stroke, sweeping movement," probably from Old Norse visk "wisp of hay, something to sweep with," from Proto-Germanic *wisk- "move quickly" (source also of Danish visk "broom," Middle Dutch wisch, Dutch wis, Old High German wisc, German wisch "wisp, brush"), (source also of Czech vechet "a wisp of straw," Old English wiscian "to plait," weoxian "to clean" with a whisk or brush). Unetymological spelling with wh- is from 1570s. Meaning "implement for beating eggs, etc." first recorded 1660s.

• Illas! I wisht I had better glances to peer to you through this bay-
  light's growing. But you're changing, acoolsha, you're changing
  from me, I can feel. Or is it me is? I'm getting mixed. Brightening
  up and tightening down. Yes, you're changing, sonhusband, and
  you're turning, I can feel you, for a daughterwife from the hills
  again. Imlamaya. And she is coming. Swimming in my hindmoist.
  Diveltaking on me tail. Just a whisk brisk sly spry spink spank
  sprint of a thing theresomere, saultering.

Two Wars and One Love:
Front-Line Soldiers Remember World War II through
the Battle of the Bulge and the Korean Conflict
by Robert E. P. Moranda (Author)
........................................................................................

No [service station attendant's] outfit was complete without the small whisk broom in the back pocket, used to clean the pump block. When a customer wanted the tires checked, I would ask them to drive to the air and water tower away from the pump block. I was also supposed to put an air chuck in the air hose and blow the dirt out of the car when I had time. One day a lady drove into the pump block when one of our salesmen was using the air chuck out at the air tower. he was cleaning out a car that had been serviced in the lubrication bay. The lady got out of the car and asked for the restroom. The attendant thought she asked for a whisk broom. With that he yelled at the lady, "If you will drive over here, I will blow it out for you."

[orin stepanek]

FlemingsTriangle_Saab_4546.jpg

Love this APOD! The Veil is a very beautiful Nebula! I couldn't
figure out the triangular part until I read the whole story! I liked the
two video"s even though the one had a repeat of the first one@

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn1SVu9hXBE

[johnnydeep]

FlemingsTriangle_Saab_4546.jpg

Love this APOD! The Veil is a very beautiful Nebula! I couldn't
figure out the triangular part until I read the whole story!
...

Please enlighten me. I see no clear triangles in this image (though I might guess at a few). Is the triangle visible here, or is it elsewhere in the larger Veil Nebula, and is it a triangle mainly of gas or is it a triangular void in the gas.

[Chris Peterson]

FlemingsTriangle_Saab_4546.jpg

Love this APOD! The Veil is a very beautiful Nebula! 8-) I couldn't
figure out the triangular part until I read the whole story!
...

Please enlighten me. I see no clear triangles in this image (though I might guess at a few). Is the triangle visible here, or is it elsewhere in the larger Veil Nebula, and is it a triangle mainly of gas or is it a triangular void in the gas.

I think you need to back out farther to see the triangular structure. See, for example, https://science.nasa.gov/williamina-fle ... gular-wisp

[johnnydeep]

FlemingsTriangle_Saab_4546.jpg

Love this APOD! The Veil is a very beautiful Nebula! I couldn't
figure out the triangular part until I read the whole story!
...

Please enlighten me. I see no clear triangles in this image (though I might guess at a few). Is the triangle visible here, or is it elsewhere in the larger Veil Nebula, and is it a triangle mainly of gas or is it a triangular void in the gas.

I think you need to back out farther to see the triangular structure. See, for example, https://science.nasa.gov/williamina-fle ... gular-wisp

So is this it? (I suppose it might even pass for a right triangle...and the full Veil is clearly a question mark):

Veil Nebula and Fragment.JPG

[orin stepanek]

FlemingsTriangle_Saab_4546.jpg

Love this APOD! The Veil is a very beautiful Nebula! I couldn't
figure out the triangular part until I read the whole story!
...

Please enlighten me. I see no clear triangles in this image (though I might guess at a few). Is the triangle visible here, or is it elsewhere in the larger Veil Nebula, and is it a triangle mainly of gas or is it a triangular void in the gas.

FlemingsTriangle_Saab_4546.jpg

Chris beat me to it; but this is what I envision!

The big one reminds me of a steer skull like you see in a desert cartoon

.jpg

[De58te]

FlemingsTriangle_Saab_4546.jpg

Love this APOD! The Veil is a very beautiful Nebula! I couldn't
figure out the triangular part until I read the whole story!
...

Please enlighten me. I see no clear triangles in this image (though I might guess at a few). Is the triangle visible here, or is it elsewhere in the larger Veil Nebula, and is it a triangle mainly of gas or is it a triangular void in the gas.

As far as I can tell the whole thing is part of the triangle. The picture has been flipped on its side. North is on the right and south is on the left. The point of the triangle extends well past the left frame. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_Nebu ... abeled.png

[neufer]

wisp (n.) early 14c., "handful or bundle of hay, grass, etc.," used for burning or cleaning or as a cushion; perhaps from an unrecorded Old English word, cognate with Norwegian and Swedish visp "wisp," of unknown origin; sometimes said to be connected with whisk or with Middle Low German and Middle Dutch wispel "a measure of grain." Meaning "thin, filmy portion" first attested 1836.
....................................................................
whisk (n.) late 14c., "quick stroke, sweeping movement," probably from Old Norse visk "wisp of hay, something to sweep with," from Proto-Germanic *wisk- "move quickly" (source also of Danish visk "broom," Middle Dutch wisch, Dutch wis, Old High German wisc, German wisch "wisp, brush"), (source also of Czech vechet "a wisp of straw," Old English wiscian "to plait," weoxian "to clean" with a whisk or brush). Unetymological spelling with wh- is from 1570s. Meaning "implement for beating eggs, etc." first recorded 1660s.

<<Williamina Paton Stevens was born in Dundee, Scotland on 15 May 1857, to Mary Walker and Robert Stevens, a carver and gilder. There, in 1877, she married James Orr Fleming, an accountant and widower, also of Dundee. The couple emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, US, when she was 21. The couple had one son, Edward Pickering Fleming.

After she and her young son were abandoned by her husband, Williamina Fleming worked as a maid in the home of Professor Edward Charles Pickering, who was director of the Harvard College Observatory. Pickering's wife Elizabeth recommended Williamina as having talents beyond custodial and maternal arts, and in 1879 Pickering hired Fleming to conduct part-time administrative work at the observatory. [It has been said that Pickering "became so exasperated with his male assistant's inefficiency, that even his maid could do a better job of copying and computing."] In 1881, Pickering invited Fleming to formally join the HCO and taught her how to analyze stellar spectra. She became one of the founding members of the Harvard Computers, an all-women cadre of human computers hired by Pickering to compute mathematical classifications and edit the observatory's publications.

NASA photograph of the Cygnus Loop in ultraviolet light

---

Pickering's Triangle was discovered photographically in 1904 by Williamina Fleming (after the New General Catalogue was published), but credit went to Edward Charles Pickering, the director of HCO, as was the custom of the day.

During her career, Fleming discovered a total of 59 gaseous nebulae, over 310 variable stars, and 10 novae. Most notably, in 1888, Fleming discovered the Horsehead Nebula on a telescope-photogrammetry plate made by astronomer W. H. Pickering, brother of E.C. Pickering. She described the bright nebula as having "a semicircular indentation 5 minutes in diameter 30 minutes south of Zeta Orionis". Subsequent professional publications neglected to give credit to Fleming for the discovery. The first Dreyer Index Catalogue omitted Fleming's name from the list of contributors having then discovered sky objects at Harvard, attributing the entire work merely to "Pickering". However, by the time the second Dreyer Index Catalogue was published in 1908, Fleming and her female colleagues at the HCO were sufficiently well-known and received proper credit for their discoveries.>>

[johnnydeep]

Thanks, all. So, ultimately, my guess above was correct.