APOD: An Extraordinary Spiral from LL Pegasi (2010 Sep 14)

[APOD Robot]

An Extraordinary Spiral from LL Pegasi

Explanation: What created the strange spiral structure on the left? No one is sure, although it is likely related to a star in a binary star system entering the planetary nebula phase, when its outer atmosphere is ejected. The huge spiral spans about a third of a light year across and, winding four or five complete turns, has a regularity that is without precedent. Given the expansion rate of the spiral gas, a new layer must appear about every 800 years, a close match to the time it takes for the two stars to orbit each other. The star system that created it is most commonly known as LL Pegasi, but also AFGL 3068. The unusual structure itself has been cataloged as IRAS 23166+1655. The above image was taken in near- infrared light by the Hubble Space Telescope. Why the spiral glows is itself a mystery, with a leading hypothesis being illumination by light reflected from nearby stars.

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[Boomer12k]

Look at all the galaxies in that picture! Awesome!

[Ann]

A beautiful image and a false-color one, of course.

The picture is taken in infrared light, so this spiral emits heat. I wonder if it emits any visible light at all. And if so, would this light be all red? The progenitor star must be very puffed-up, and its outer layers must look very orangish, so it would be no surprise if the spiral was somewhat orangish, too.

I wonder what star that is. The closest star I could find would be HD 219670, a K0 star (surprise!!!), magnitude 8.04 in Johnson, color index +0.99 in Johnson, and with the coordinates 23 17 35.78 in RA and +16 42 06.1 in dec.

Ann

(And hey, I just made 500 posts!)

[FrogSplash]

Wouldn't we see the star too?

FS

[neufer]

The picture is taken in infrared light, so this spiral emits heat. I wonder if it emits any visible light at all.

The picture was taken in near-infrared light
which is far closer to visible light than to far-infrared "heat."

[dphab]

The spiral was caused by a Russian rocket, just like this one:
http://www.news.com.au/world/mysterious ... 5809298672

[bellicase]

What is most striking about this spiral is that it appears to be an arithmatic spiral, NOT a logarithmic spiral, which are the kind nature normally produces, including galaxies, duh. Any clues as to why?

[biddie67]

How lucky for us that we can see this spiral face on; the whole effect would have been lost if it had been edge on to the Hubble.

It reminds me of the same pattern that one of those fast spinning lawn sprinklers creates as the water is spun out. Could the spiral arm have been created by a fast spinning star that has some kind of jet - could the jet's emission itself cause the spinning and the resulting "smoke trail"?

[bystander]

HEIC: An Extraordinary Celestial Spiral
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=20963

[Donna]

I love this site, I have it as my home page for nearly 4 years now. At any rate it looks like it is coming towards the camera dosn't it. Optical illusion I guess.

[Eclectic Man]

What is most striking about this spiral is that it appears to be an arithmatic spiral, NOT a logarithmic spiral, which are the kind nature normally produces, including galaxies, duh. Any clues as to why?

The arithmetic spiral is produced because the matter emitted by the rotating star is not accelerating as it recedes, but dispersing (which also causes the dimming effect in the picture). If the star rotates regularly and emits matter at a constant rate the spiral would be like that shown.

Logarithmic spirals are natural where a large number of similar objects are packed into a small surface, such as a sunflower head. I suspect that the spirals seen in galaxies are not sufficiently well-defined to be clearly logarithmic.

The image appears to be coming towards the viewer as the centre of the spiral is brighter. A similar effect is observed when firework rockets explode as the sudden increase in brightness is interpreted by the brain as coming closer to the viewer.

[md,phd, plasma phys.]

that spiral is so obviously a structure formed by a Birkland current that it, in and of itself, should be reason to reform all of cosmology. The light, even infrared, is caused by the movement of charged particles in the presence of electrical fields, just like the auroras.

[skarni]

I cropped the spiral tightly, modified it with a Neon Glow in dark grey, and revealed a cosmic yin yang!

[neufer]

[size=85]And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.[/size]

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[img3="One of the most notable examples of Art at Newgrange is the triskele-like features found on the entrance stone, which has been described as "one of the most famous stones in the entire repertory of Megalithic Art." Archaeologists believe that most of the carvings were produced prior to the stones being erected in place, although the entrance stone was instead carved in situ before the kerbstones were placed alongside it.

http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... 590#p99590"]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... reland.jpg[/img3]
Megalithic Art Newgranger

[desparate]

What about gravitational lensing? Wouldn't a spiral galaxy looks something like this after a lensing effect?
I am curious to find out.

[Chris Peterson]

What about gravitational lensing? Wouldn't a spiral galaxy looks something like this after a lensing effect?
I am curious to find out.

No, a gravitational lens doesn't produce an image in the same way an ordinary lens does. A gravitational lens breaks up the light of a distant object into multiple distorted images.

In any case, there is no indication that this spiral object is so distant that an intervening invisible galaxy or galaxy cluster could be bending its light.

[Ann]

[img3="One of the most notable examples of Art at Newgrange is the triskele-like features found on the entrance stone, which has been described as "one of the most famous stones in the entire repertory of Megalithic Art." Archaeologists believe that most of the carvings were produced prior to the stones being erected in place, although the entrance stone was instead carved in situ before the kerbstones were placed alongside it.

http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... 590#p99590"]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... reland.jpg[/img3]
Megalithic Art Newgranger

That megalithic stone is what Vincent van Gogh must have looked at when he painted "Starry Night", right?

Click to view full size image

Ann

[Beyond]

Ann, we may never know what Vincent van Gogh's inspiration for >Starry Night< was. He evolved into Vincent van Gone before anyone thought to ask him.

[Ann]

Ann, we may never know what Vincent van Gogh's inspiration for >Starry Night< was. He evolved into Vincent van Gone before anyone thought to ask him.

I agree with you, beyond. I doubt that van Gogh ever saw that megalithic stone. I'm sure he was able to think of the style of "Starry Night" on his own. I wasn't quite serious, but I guess you could say - spirals, spirals everywhere!

Ann

[iamlucky13]

Careful...you're going to get the 2012 folks all excited again. I wouldn't be remotely surprised if that picture and today's APOD start showing up alongside claims that a photograph of Nibiru has been made.

[neufer]

That megalithic stone is what Vincent van Gogh must have looked at when he painted "Starry Night", right?

Vincent van Gogh was Dutch; however, Lord Rosse was Celtic

[b][color=#0000FF]1845 drawing by Lord Rosse, after M51[/color][/b]

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1889 reed pen drawing by van Gogh, executed after the painting

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"As pointed out by Simon Singh in his book Big Bang,
The Starry Night has striking similarities to a sketch of the Whirlpool Galaxy, drawn by Lord Rosse 44 years before van Gogh's work.')

<<In September 1888, while van Gogh was staying in Arles, he executed a painting commonly known as Starry Night Over the Rhone and later he incorporated a pen drawing in a set of a dozen based on recent paintings. Van Gogh claimed to have a "terrible need for religion" when he painted Starry Night Over the Rhone.

In mid-September 1889, following a heavy crisis which lasted from mid-July to the last days of August, he thought to include this "Study of the Night" in the next batch of works to be sent to his brother, Theo, in Paris. In order to reduce the shipping costs, he withheld three of the studies ("Poppies – Night Effect – Moonrise"). These three went to Paris with the shipment to follow. As Theo did not immediately report its arrival, Vincent inquired again, and finally received Theo's commentary on his recent work.

The center part shows the village of Saint-Rémy under a swirling sky, in a view from the asylum towards north. The Alpilles far to the right fit to this view, but there is little rapport of the actual scene with the intermediary hills which seem to be derived from a different part of the surroundings, south of the asylum. The cypress tree to the left was added into the composition. Of note is the fact van Gogh had already, during his time in Arles, repositioned Ursa Major from the north to the south in his painting Starry Night Over the Rhone.>>

[erbemone]

In the Galaxy to the left of the spiral binary, is that possibly a supernova????, or just a very close faint star?

[rstevenson]

From an interesting write up about Van Gogh's work...

It is possible that digitalis-induced xanthopsia was making van Gogh perceive the world with a yellow tint. The predominance of colored halos around light sources in various works, such as The Starry Night, may also be attributable to the effects of digitalis.

Rob

[neufer]

From an interesting write up about Van Gogh's work...

It is possible that digitalis-induced xanthopsia was making van Gogh perceive the world with a yellow tint. The predominance of colored halos around light sources in various works, such as The Starry Night, may also be attributable to the effects of digitalis.

Rob

You do realize, of course, that this is grounds for Ann to commit us all to an asylum.

[Beyond]

From an interesting write up about Van Gogh's work...

It is possible that digitalis-induced xanthopsia was making van Gogh perceive the world with a yellow tint. The predominance of colored halos around light sources in various works, such as The Starry Night, may also be attributable to the effects of digitalis.

Rob

You do realize, of course, that this is grounds for Ann to commit us all to an asylum.

Hey art, according to the rules of this Asterisk Site, The Asterisk itself has already judged those who have 500 posts or more to be legally insane. So if we are already insane and HERE, then HERE must be an insane asylum, RIGHT