This is a very fine picture. I love the background sky, absolutely peppered with colorful stars. Of course we are looking at constellation Perseus, so we are in the band of the Milky Way, although not in the thickest and most luminous part of it. Regardless, this is the kind of cosmic neighborhood where we expect to see stars, not distant galaxies.
Of course we may see planetary nebulas here, too, so M76 is not a surprising but a welcome sight. I think it is so interesting to compare the colors of the Little Dumbbell and Comet Lovejoy. M76 appears to be a little more aqua-colored than Lovejoy, which is more clearly green. But the difference is small. I found
a picture by David Lane where the color difference between the comet and the planetary is quite striking.
But back to today's APOD. Another feature that is striking is the bright blue star at about 5 o'clock. This is in itself a truly fascinating star,
Phi Persei. It is a madly rotating hot star of spectral class B2, surrounded by a thick equatorial ring. And the B2 primary has a blisteringly hot companion, an O-type dwarf. This scorching star is probably on its way to becoming a white dwarf, and the thick equatorial ring surrounding the primary (
and a matching ring surrounding the secondary) may be remnants of the outer, now cast-off atmosphere of the O-type dwarf. This super-hot midget may be in the process of creating its own planetary nebula. Who knows, our future descendants may see two planetary nebulas in the direction of the Little Dumbbell.
Although Comet Lovejoy will be lost among millions of other pieces of rock orbiting the Sun by the time we get a planetary nebula in Phi Persei.
Ann
This is a very fine picture. I love the background sky, absolutely peppered with colorful stars. Of course we are looking at constellation Perseus, so we are in the band of the Milky Way, although not in the thickest and most luminous part of it. Regardless, this is the kind of cosmic neighborhood where we expect to see stars, not distant galaxies.
Of course we may see planetary nebulas here, too, so M76 is not a surprising but a welcome sight. I think it is so interesting to compare the colors of the Little Dumbbell and Comet Lovejoy. M76 appears to be a little more aqua-colored than Lovejoy, which is more clearly green. But the difference is small. I found [url=http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=108867]a picture by David Lane[/url] where the color difference between the comet and the planetary is quite striking.
But back to today's APOD. Another feature that is striking is the bright blue star at about 5 o'clock. This is in itself a truly fascinating star, [url=http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/phiper.html]Phi Persei[/url]. It is a madly rotating hot star of spectral class B2, surrounded by a thick equatorial ring. And the B2 primary has a blisteringly hot companion, an O-type dwarf. This scorching star is probably on its way to becoming a white dwarf, and the thick equatorial ring surrounding the primary ([i]and[/i] a matching ring surrounding the secondary) may be remnants of the outer, now cast-off atmosphere of the O-type dwarf. This super-hot midget may be in the process of creating its own planetary nebula. Who knows, our future descendants may see two planetary nebulas in the direction of the Little Dumbbell.
Although Comet Lovejoy will be lost among millions of other pieces of rock orbiting the Sun by the time we get a planetary nebula in Phi Persei.
Ann