by Ann » Sun May 16, 2021 5:55 am
N90, the nebula housing NGC 602, is the Jaws Nebula!
There are two things that I particularly love about NGC 602 (and beyond):
Closeup of cluster NGC 602.
The first thing that I love about it is the cluster itself, NGC 602. And what I particularly love about it is that you can see so clearly that there are a lot of faint stars in this cluster surrounding the relatively few brilliantly bright cluster members.
That is how star formation works. There are always many more small faint stars than large bright ones formed in every burst of star formation. Over time the small light-weight stars get scattered farther away, so that the visible cluster center appears to contain only the bright stars, and no surplus of faint stars. That is what has happened to the Pleiades, for example.
I should point out the star that is responsible for doing most of the ionizing of the magnificent N90 (Jaws) Nebula. It is the brightest star in the field, and in the closeup that I posted, it is located at upper right (not top right). In the APOD, it is at upper center.
Wikipedia wrote:
NGC 602 includes many young O and B stars and young stellar objects, with few evolved stars.[9] Ionisation in the nebula is dominated by
Sk 183, an extremely hot O3 main sequence star visible as the bright isolated star at the centre of the Hubble image.
The second thing I really love about the Hubble image of NGC 602 is the beautiful little background spiral galaxy, seen in the image above at left. Isn't it perfect?
Ann
[float=left][img3="The open jaws of nebula N90 with cluster NGC 602 inside. NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage team"]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2105/Ngc602_Hubble_960.jpg[/img3][/float][float=right][img3="Image: Mediadrumimages/EuanRannachan/@E"]https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/78/750x445/1194317.jpg[/img3][/float]
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N90, the nebula housing NGC 602, is the Jaws Nebula!
There are two things that I particularly love about NGC 602 (and beyond):
[float=left][attachment=0]NGC 602.png[/attachment][c][size=85][color=#0040FF]Closeup of cluster NGC 602.[/color][/size][/c][/float][float=right][img3="The Pleiades and the surrounding field. Image: NOAO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY."]https://media.sciencephoto.com/image/r6140075/800wm[/img3][/float]
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The first thing that I love about it is the cluster itself, NGC 602. And what I particularly love about it is that you can see so clearly that there are a lot of faint stars in this cluster surrounding the relatively few brilliantly bright cluster members.
That is how star formation works. There are always many more small faint stars than large bright ones formed in every burst of star formation. Over time the small light-weight stars get scattered farther away, so that the visible cluster center appears to contain only the bright stars, and no surplus of faint stars. That is what has happened to the Pleiades, for example.
I should point out the star that is responsible for doing most of the ionizing of the magnificent N90 (Jaws) Nebula. It is the brightest star in the field, and in the closeup that I posted, it is located at upper right (not top right). In the APOD, it is at upper center.
[quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_602]Wikipedia[/url] wrote:
NGC 602 includes many young O and B stars and young stellar objects, with few evolved stars.[9] Ionisation in the nebula is dominated by [size=120][b][color=#0000FF]S[/color][color=#BF00FF]k[/color] [color=#0080FF]1[/color][color=#FF00FF]8[/color][color=#0040FF]3[/color][/b][/size], an extremely hot O3 main sequence star visible as the bright isolated star at the centre of the Hubble image.[/quote]
[float=left][img3=""]https://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hvi/uploads/image_file/image_attachment/30545/_STScI-gallery-0704a-1024x361.jpg[/img3][/float]
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The second thing I really love about the Hubble image of NGC 602 is the beautiful little background spiral galaxy, seen in the image above at left. Isn't it perfect?
Ann