by alter-ego » Mon May 31, 2010 11:59 pm
Ann wrote:Well, that's a golden oldie which was a spectacular picture at its time. Now, though, there are many images of the center of the Milky Way which are just so much better.
As for this picture, I wonder what scale we are talking about. I think there are a couple of HII regions in the upper right of the dust lane. Can anyone identify them?
Ann,
The
scale (field of view), of the photo is ~10 x 8 degrees. The two regions of interest, that I think you are referring to, are NGC 6357 (
War and Peace Nebula), nearer the galactic center, and NGC 6334 (
Cat's Paw Nebula). Both are in the constellation Scorpius, and NGC 6357 is also home to
Pismis 24, an open star cluster containing some of the more massive stars known. Note that the NGC links are 2MASS pictures also, so you can verify the identities yourself by zooming in on the two regions in the APOD 2MASS picture and compare to the linked 2MASS pictures of the individual nebulae.
Hope this is helpul
[quote="Ann"]Well, that's a golden oldie which was a spectacular picture at its time. Now, though, there are many images of the center of the Milky Way which are just so much better.
As for this picture, I wonder what scale we are talking about. I think there are a couple of HII regions in the upper right of the dust lane. Can anyone identify them?[/quote]
Ann,
The [url=http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/showcase/galcen/caption.html]scale[/url] (field of view), of the photo is ~10 x 8 degrees. The two regions of interest, that I think you are referring to, are NGC 6357 ([url=http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/ngc6357atlas.jpg]War and Peace Nebula[/url]), nearer the galactic center, and NGC 6334 ([url=http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/ngc6334atlas.jpg]Cat's Paw Nebula[/url]). Both are in the constellation Scorpius, and NGC 6357 is also home to [url=http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2009/multimedia/gal_002.php]Pismis 24[/url], an open star cluster containing some of the more massive stars known. Note that the NGC links are 2MASS pictures also, so you can verify the identities yourself by zooming in on the two regions in the APOD 2MASS picture and compare to the linked 2MASS pictures of the individual nebulae.
Hope this is helpul :D