APOD: NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara (2024 Jun 19)

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APOD: NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara (2024 Jun 19)

Post by APOD Robot » Wed Jun 19, 2024 4:06 am

Image NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara

Explanation: Do dragons fight on the altar of the sky? Although it might appear that way, these dragons are illusions made of thin gas and dust. The emission nebula NGC 6188, home to the glowing clouds, is found about 4,000 light years away near the edge of a large molecular cloud, unseen at visible wavelengths, in the southern constellation Ara (the Altar). Massive, young stars of the embedded Ara OB1 association were formed in that region only a few million years ago, sculpting the dark shapes and powering the nebular glow with stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation. The recent star formation itself was likely triggered by winds and supernova explosions from previous generations of massive stars, that swept up and compressed the molecular gas. This impressively detailed image spans over 2 degrees (four full Moons), corresponding to over 150 light years at the estimated distance of NGC 6188.

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Ann
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Re: APOD: NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara (2024 Jun 19)

Post by Ann » Wed Jun 19, 2024 5:16 am

Me being me, I'll leave the discussion of the APOD to the rest of you, while I go Oohh! and Aahh! 🥳 over the magnificent O-type stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟 of Cluster NGC 6193, the ionizing stars of the Dragons of Ara. 🐉

Wikipedia wrote about HD 150136 and cluster NGC 6193:

All three (four, including HD 150135) of the brightest stars are massive luminous O class main sequence stars, 27 to 54 times as massive as the Sun. They are around 10 times the size of the Sun, but 6-8 times hotter and each is over 100,000 times as luminous. The primary star is the closest O3 star to Earth, 46,500 K, visually 18,000 times as bright as the sun, but because of its high temperature it is around three quarters of a million times more luminous including all wavelengths.

Let's look at how the gorgeous HD 150136 (and friends) sculpts and ionizes it surroundings in glorious technicolor!

NGC 6193 and NGC 6188 Scott Stirling.png
NGC 6188 and NGC 6193. Note the outline of the dragons. 🐉
Credit: Scott Stirling


And finally, let's look at a picture that isn't an RGB image, but it's gorgeous anyway:

NGC 6188 and NGC 6193 by Joseph M Drudis.png
NGC 6188 and NGC 6193. Credit: Joseph M. Drudis

Gorgeous!! :D 🥳

Ann
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alex555

Re: APOD: NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara (2024 Jun 19)

Post by alex555 » Wed Jun 19, 2024 7:30 am

I assume the stars were digitally removed in this image? When we look at the image at full resolution, there are lots of small faint little disks.

Alex

tao

Re: APOD: NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara (2024 Jun 19)

Post by tao » Wed Jun 19, 2024 8:00 am

[unrelated to Astronomy] Before reading the title, the first thing this image brought to mind was Michelangelo's famous depiction of Adam and God in the Sistine Chapel:
Image

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Re: APOD: NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara (2024 Jun 19)

Post by ramiroflores » Wed Jun 19, 2024 10:59 am

so beautiful there are no words to describe!

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Re: APOD: NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara (2024 Jun 19)

Post by JimB » Wed Jun 19, 2024 3:50 pm

alex555 wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 7:30 am I assume the stars were digitally removed in this image? When we look at the image at full resolution, there are lots of small faint little disks.

Alex
Yes - A direct comparison with the almost equivalent image from wikpedia

Todays image
Image

Wikipedia image
NGC_6188_Los_Dragones_de_Ara_en_Paleta_Hubble.jpg



makes it very obvious that the stars have been removed.

That also explains some of the other artefacts on the full resolution image (e.g. faint diffraction cross hairs).

I can see that removing the stars allows better appreciation of the shapes, but it also seems to remove some of the grandeur and sense of scale.
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Re: APOD: NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara (2024 Jun 19)

Post by johnnydeep » Wed Jun 19, 2024 4:35 pm

JimB wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 3:50 pm
alex555 wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 7:30 am I assume the stars were digitally removed in this image? When we look at the image at full resolution, there are lots of small faint little disks.

Alex
Yes - A direct comparison with the almost equivalent image from wikpedia

Todays image
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2406/A ... r_4728.jpg

Wikipedia image
NGC_6188_Los_Dragones_de_Ara_en_Paleta_Hubble.jpg


makes it very obvious that the stars have been removed.

That also explains some of the other artefacts on the full resolution image (e.g. faint diffraction cross hairs).

I can see that removing the stars allows better appreciation of the shapes, but it also seems to remove some of the grandeur and sense of scale.
And even better, the last link in the description is to this video showing a morphing of the nebula into the Michelangelo fresco !

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[ EDIT: woops - I meant to reply to Tao who wrote:
tao wrote:[unrelated to Astronomy] Before reading the title, the first thing this image brought to mind was Michelangelo's famous depiction of Adam and God in the Sistine Chapel:
Also, I thought I could delete a past message of mine, but that option seems not to be available. Was it ever? ]
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Re: APOD: NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara (2024 Jun 19)

Post by bystander » Wed Jun 19, 2024 11:19 pm

johnnydeep wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 4:35 pm
Also, I thought I could delete a past message of mine, but that option seems not to be available. Was it ever?

If it is the last message in a thread, you can delete it. If someone else has posted since you posted the message, you can no longer delete the message.
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

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johnnydeep
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Re: APOD: NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara (2024 Jun 19)

Post by johnnydeep » Thu Jun 20, 2024 12:42 pm

bystander wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 11:19 pm
johnnydeep wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 4:35 pm
Also, I thought I could delete a past message of mine, but that option seems not to be available. Was it ever?

If it is the last message in a thread, you can delete it. If someone else has posted since you posted the message, you can no longer delete the message.
Ok, thanks. I could see being unable to delete a message if someone specifically quoted that message, but I would have thought that even if someone added to the thread, that alone wouldn’t prevent deletion. But I guess I could argue it either way.
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"To B̬̻̋̚o̞̮̚̚l̘̲̀᷾d̫͓᷅ͩḷ̯᷁ͮȳ͙᷊͠ Go......Beyond The F͇̤i̙̖e̤̟l̡͓d͈̹s̙͚ We Know."{ʲₒʰₙNYᵈₑᵉₚ}