by Ann » Fri Aug 23, 2019 5:53 am
First of all, thank you Sara Wager for a gorgeous portrait of the California Nebula!
I love "true-color" (RGB or RGB + Hα) astro images, and I love the shades of reddish-pink and blue that I can see in your picture. Also, the fact that yours is such a deep and wide-angle picture allows us to see more of the California Nebula.
I would have loved to paste your image into my own post, but I can't, since it is too big. So I will post another image of the California Nebula next to a picture of the Flaming Star Nebula, because I think that these two nebulas (and their ionizing stars) are very interestingly similar yet different at the same time.
The Flaming Star Nebula. Photo: Rolf Geissinger.
The California Nebula. Photo: Hytham Abu-Safieh.
In the California Nebula, an O-type runaway star is piling up a nebula in front of it, a nebula with two shock fronts of piled-up ionized gas. In the Flaming Star Nebula, the star has overtaken the nebula and slammed into it, causing chaotic ripples in the nebula.
Note the long tail of fainter nebulosity at right in the Flaming Star Nebula. Note, in the Sara Wager image in today's APOD, that you can see a faint "tail" (at upper right) in the California Nebula, too.
The two ionizing stars,
Xi Persei and
AE Aurigae, are also interestingly similar. Both are runaway O-type stars, but Xi Persei is a bit hotter, heavier, brighter and more evolved.
Ann
First of all, thank you Sara Wager for a gorgeous portrait of the California Nebula! :D I love "true-color" (RGB or RGB + Hα) astro images, and I love the shades of reddish-pink and blue that I can see in your picture. Also, the fact that yours is such a deep and wide-angle picture allows us to see more of the California Nebula.
I would have loved to paste your image into my own post, but I can't, since it is too big. So I will post another image of the California Nebula next to a picture of the Flaming Star Nebula, because I think that these two nebulas (and their ionizing stars) are very interestingly similar yet different at the same time.
[float=right][img2]https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/IC-405-600x600.jpg[/img2][c][size=85]The Flaming Star Nebula. Photo: Rolf Geissinger.[/size][/c][/float][float=left][img2]https://farm1.static.flickr.com/692/23020624490_e9536a285e_b.jpg[/img2][c][size=85]The California Nebula. Photo: Hytham Abu-Safieh.[/size][/c][/float]
In the California Nebula, an O-type runaway star is piling up a nebula in front of it, a nebula with two shock fronts of piled-up ionized gas. In the Flaming Star Nebula, the star has overtaken the nebula and slammed into it, causing chaotic ripples in the nebula.
Note the long tail of fainter nebulosity at right in the Flaming Star Nebula. Note, in the Sara Wager image in today's APOD, that you can see a faint "tail" (at upper right) in the California Nebula, too.
The two ionizing stars, [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Persei]Xi Persei[/url] and [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AE_Aurigae]AE Aurigae[/url], are also interestingly similar. Both are runaway O-type stars, but Xi Persei is a bit hotter, heavier, brighter and more evolved.
Ann