APOD: The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and... (2023 Aug 07)

[APOD Robot]

The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars

Explanation: The Pelican Nebula is slowly being transformed. IC 5070 (the official designation) is divided from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. The Pelican, however, receives much study because it is a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The featured picture was produced in three specific colors -- light emitted by sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen -- that can help us to better understand these interactions. The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming the cold gas to hot gas, with the advancing boundary between the two, known as an ionization front, visible in bright orange on the right. Particularly dense tentacles of cold gas remain. Millions of years from now, the Pelican nebula, bounded by dark nebula LDN 935, might no longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance and placement of stars and gas will surely leave something that appears completely different.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[Ann]

The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars. Credit & Copyright: Abe Jones

---

The Pelican Nebula. Credit: Hunter Wilson.

It's kind of hard to spot the pelican in the Pelican Nebula in today's APOD! Okay, I'll help you:

Face of the Pelican. Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello

Face of the Pelican. Credit: Abe Jones.

Ann

[Ann]

The Pelican Nebula as a one-eyed space monster. Credit: Abe Jones.

The Pelican Nebula as a pelican. Credit: Hunter Wilson.

Ann

[Cousin Ricky]

This image is mirror reversed.

[zendae1]

Would the hydrogen and oxygen combine under the evolving conditions to form water? It is happening within the accretion disc of PDS 70, a very young star very close to the Solar System. Free floating water vapor just sitting there, in the Goldilocks zone. And two proto-planets forming there also, where the water is.

[johnnydeep]

Would the hydrogen and oxygen combine under the evolving conditions to form water? It is happening within the accretion disc of PDS 70, a very young star very close to the Solar System. Free floating water vapor just sitting there, in the Goldilocks zone. And two proto-planets forming there also, where the water is.

Hmm, interesting question. We need a more knowledgeable responder than I am however. That said, I'd think this could indeed be how the ice that's present in the vast majority of comets is created, or at least one of the mechanisms of its creation.

[orin stepanek]

Pelican's Future???? Pretty kitty!

185px-Pelecanus_Philippensis.jpg (13.58 KiB) Viewed 4507 times

I've seen these as far inland as Platte County here in Nebraska at Lake North!

[starsurfer]

This image is mirror reversed.

I hate it when images are mirror reversed.

[starsurfer]

I wish there was a Bumblebee Nebula.

[Ann]

Would the hydrogen and oxygen combine under the evolving conditions to form water? It is happening within the accretion disc of PDS 70, a very young star very close to the Solar System. Free floating water vapor just sitting there, in the Goldilocks zone. And two proto-planets forming there also, where the water is.

Water isn't rare in the Universe.

Forbes wrote:

In science fiction, when an advanced alien civilization visits Earth, they always want something. Often it's our precious water. Earth is a water-rich world, and (as far as we know) life depends upon water. But water isn't that rare in the cosmos. Water is made of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is by far the most abundant element, and Oxygen is the third most abundant. Number two is helium, which doesn't react chemically, so water is really common.
...
Recently a team studied the atmospheres of 19 exoplanets. These were large planets like Neptune or Jupiter, rather than smaller, Earth-like worlds. But it is the first survey to see how common water is on exoplanets. The team detected water on 14 of the worlds, which suggests that most exoplanets have water. This is what you would expect, given the molecule's abundance.

But the team also found something rather surprising. While water was often present, it wasn't typically abundant. This was true for a wide range of exoplanets, from hot Jupiters to much cooler worlds. So while water is common in the universe, it may tend to evaporate off planets. That would mean Earth is rather rare.

I would like to add that what sets the Earth apart from so many other planets is not that we have huge amounts of water, because we don't:

---

No, what makes the Earth so unusual is that our rather small amount of water is liquid and located on our planet's surface. On top of that, the Earth's surface is not completely covered in water, but there is land, too. This may turn out to be very unusual indeed.

Ann

[johnnydeep]

Would the hydrogen and oxygen combine under the evolving conditions to form water? It is happening within the accretion disc of PDS 70, a very young star very close to the Solar System. Free floating water vapor just sitting there, in the Goldilocks zone. And two proto-planets forming there also, where the water is.

Water isn't rare in the Universe.

Forbes wrote:

In science fiction, when an advanced alien civilization visits Earth, they always want something. Often it's our precious water. Earth is a water-rich world, and (as far as we know) life depends upon water. But water isn't that rare in the cosmos. Water is made of hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is by far the most abundant element, and Oxygen is the third most abundant. Number two is helium, which doesn't react chemically, so water is really common.
...
Recently a team studied the atmospheres of 19 exoplanets. These were large planets like Neptune or Jupiter, rather than smaller, Earth-like worlds. But it is the first survey to see how common water is on exoplanets. The team detected water on 14 of the worlds, which suggests that most exoplanets have water. This is what you would expect, given the molecule's abundance.

But the team also found something rather surprising. While water was often present, it wasn't typically abundant. This was true for a wide range of exoplanets, from hot Jupiters to much cooler worlds. So while water is common in the universe, it may tend to evaporate off planets. That would mean Earth is rather rare.

I would like to add that what sets the Earth apart from so many other planets is not that we have huge amounts of water, because we don't:

---

No, what makes the Earth so unusual is that our rather small amount of water is liquid and located on our planet's surface. On top of that, the Earth's surface is not completely covered in water, but there is land, too. This may turn out to be very unusual indeed.

Ann

Let me add that Wikipedia says:

Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level, and 0.4% over the entire atmosphere.

And NASA says:

Published recently in the journal Nature Astronomy, the Juno results estimate that at the equator, water makes up about 0.25% of the molecules in Jupiter's atmosphere - almost three times that of the Sun.

So, I'd call these atmospheric concentrations of water on Earth And Jupiter to be very similar.

[zendae1]

"Water isn't rare in the Universe."

What is rare tho is, it is the first time water has been detected in the Goldilocks Zone at the same time and place as 2 protoplanets also in that Goldilocks Zone. I should have mentioned that.