APOD: IRAS 05437 2502: An Enigmatic Star... (2010 Aug 09)

[Dallythewop]

sooo beautiful. APOD def. helps one forget their problems, at least for a while.

[Noah]

It strikes me that we are not looking at a backlit cone-shaped 'floating mountain', but a backlit v-shaped 'arch'. There does appear to be a star at the apex of the arch, which would seem to be a candidate for the source of the light, but it could also be another star hidden from view, higher up. Further, the lower sections of the inverted V could be generated by a shadow effect, rather than being the physical edge of a cloud (think crepuscular rays).

It is apparent that there is a lighting effect generating the "larger V"that comprises the enitire image. But, what "shadow effect"creates such a conical section? (I assume it is a conical section which creates the "larger V") I understand that light diffuses conically when forced through a "pinhole". But what , in empty space, would create such a "pinhole"?

[Ann]

This IRAS 05437+2502 star cloud was yesterday's news. There is no new APOD for today. Why not? Has Otto gone on strike?



Ann

[biddie67]

snafu ????

[RJN]

My bad. Yesterday,I forgot to set up the next day's APOD in the future APOD queue. I will do it now. It will take a few minutes. Sorry. - RJN

[RJN]

OK, the new APOD is up. I apologize to all of the mirror operators and to Otto Posterman, the Asterisk APOD robot updater. - RJN

[DavidLeodis]

It's a spooky yet also ethereal image. I like it a lot.

[Madame]

Please tell me they plan to nickname this "Mount Olympus". lol That is exactly what it looks like!

[neufer]

OK, the new APOD is up. I apologize to all of the mirror operators and to Otto Posterman, the Asterisk APOD robot updater. - RJN

OTTO: It could only have been attributable to human error. The Posterman series is the most reliable Asterisk computer ever made. No Posterman computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.

[zimionus]

It would be interesting to see a picture at a wider angle of the cloud region.

[BMAONE23]

from a link
Stereo pairs
http://pro.tok2.com/~aq6a-ink/ms/usa3db/05437.htm
a zoomable version
http://www.starrycritters.com/tag/iras-054372502/
From DSS2
http://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov/userimages ... 963_4.html

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF][size=130]GIANT BARNACLE[/size][/color][/b]

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<<Found these giant barnacles on the beach yesterday . You can see part of the shrimp-like animal that lives inside; they stick out there feet , called cirri, to try and catch plankton and other tiny organisms and eat them. They are quite strange to observe, almost alien-like.>>

Stereo pairs
http://pro.tok2.com/~aq6a-ink/ms/usa3db/05437.htm
a zoomable version
http://www.starrycritters.com/tag/iras-054372502/
From DSS2
http://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov/userimages ... 963_4.html

[neufer]

K2 from the east, photographed during the 1909 expedition

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<<K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth after Mount Everest. With a peak elevation of 8,611 metres, K2 is part of the Karakoram Range, and is located on the border between the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China, and Gilgit, in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan. K2 is known as the Savage Mountain due to the difficulty of ascent and the 2nd highest fatality rate among the 'eight thousanders' for those who climb it. For every four people who have reached the summit, one has died trying. Unlike Annapurna, the mountain with the highest fatality rate, K2 has never been climbed in winter.

Montgomerie's original sketch in which he applied the notation K2

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The name K2 is derived from the notation used by the Great Trigonometric Survey. Thomas Montgomerie made the first survey of the Karakoram from Mount Haramukh, some 210 km to the south, and sketched the two most prominent peaks, labelling them K1 and K2. The policy of the Great Trigonometric Survey was to use local names for mountains wherever possible and K1 was found to be known locally as Masherbrum. K2, however, appeared not to have acquired a local name, possibly due to its remoteness. The mountain is not visible from Askole, the last village to the south, or from the nearest habitation to the north, and is only fleetingly glimpsed from the end of the Baltoro Glacier, beyond which few local people would have ventured. The name Chogori, derived from two Balti words, chhogo ('big') and ri ('mountain') (شاہگوری) has been suggested as a local name, but evidence for its widespread use is scant. It may have been a compound name invented by Western explorers or simply a bemused reply to the question "What's that called?" It does, however, form the basis for the name Qogir by which Chinese authorities officially refer to the peak. Lacking a local name, the name Mount Godwin-Austen was suggested, in honour of Henry Godwin-Austen, an early explorer of the area, and while the name was rejected by the Royal Geographical Society.

The surveyor's mark, K2, therefore continues to be the name by which the mountain is commonly known. It is now also used in the Balti language, rendered as Kechu or Ketu. The Italian climber Fosco Maraini argued in his account of the ascent of Gasherbrum IV that while the name of K2 owes its origin to chance, its clipped, impersonal nature is highly appropriate for so remote and challenging a mountain. He concluded that it was...

"...just the bare bones of a name, all rock and ice and storm and abyss. It makes no attempt to sound human. It is atoms and stars. It has the nakedness of the world before the first man - or of the cindered planet after the last.">>

[billlovesstars]

I have looked at the enigmatic star picture several times and can not help but thinking that it appears to look like a hooded figure praying. The V appears to be the top of the hood. below the V appears to be a faint image of a right eye and the star appears to be the left eye. Below that a gas cloud looks alot like to hands coming together in prayer. All the rest of the gas clouds appear to make up the shroud of the figure............Why Not! ...don't we call "out there"" the Heavens"?

[starman]

This looks strangely like one half of a T Tau bipolar outflow - excess material from a forming star is being blasted out at its poles and then causing shocks/illuminating interstellar material in the immediate area. There will be another outflow from the opposite pole but if the star is tilted towards us then it may well obscure this other outflow, as could obscurations of other kinds. Google for images of other similar stars such as R Mon, RY Tau, PV Cep etc. The last of these is also a "runaway star", causing havoc in its parent nebula! (Causing creation actually)
I have just done some research and there appears to be no pre-main-sequence variable star at the position of the IRAS source. Problem is, the IR detectors do not give point positions but instead a small elliptical area so you have to widen the search coordinates. Even so, no T Tau star catalogued as such. Intriguing!