Please post your images here for January 5-8.
If you need instructions on posting images, please see this thread.
Thank you!
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Sky on Fire
Copyright: Terry Lebermann
[attachment=5]113_1318.JPG[/attachment][/i]
M78 in Orion
http://www.galaxyphoto.de/m78_I.htm
Copyright: Michael Deger
[attachment=0]M78new.jpg[/attachment][/i]
Last Sunset of the Year
http://www.isaacgp.es
Copyright: Isaac Gutiérrez Pascual
[attachment=1]last sunset of the year.jpg[/attachment][/i]
IC 1396 in Cepheus
Copyright: Eiji Mori
[attachment=4]eos40d_ic1396_100905_byeijimori.jpg[/attachment][/i]
NGC 210 in Cetus
http://www.caelumobservatory.com/gallery/n210.shtml
Copyright: Adam Block December Lunar Eclipse
http://phoc.us/e608ad
Copyright: Robert Alan Nixon III Geminids Meteor Shower
http://pmartin.smugmug.com/Other/2010-G ... 8jEEo-O-LB
Copyright: Pierre Martin
[attachment=2]Geminids_Martin.jpg[/attachment][/i]
Ordered Magnetic Fields May Aid Star Formation
http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.3312, http://arxiv.org/abs/1001.2790, http://www.submm.caltech.edu/cso/, http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/sma/
Copyright: Hua-bai Li
[attachment=3]cso_sma2024.png[/attachment][/i]
Who enjoys incredible pictures of stars might also be interested in the origin of stars, a mystery this picture can help to solve. Stars are born in molecular clouds, which are supersonically turbulent. Turbulence is widely assumed as the major force controlling cloud fragmentation and regulating star formation.This picture shows that the ordered magnetic fields (blue vectors, traced by far-infrared polarization observed from the CSO with Hertz) permeating through molecular clouds introduce an "unique direction" to turbulent flows. Along this direction, the gas velocities are more coherent and generate filamentary density structures (shown as the contours, traced by HCO+ emission observed from the SMA).
Gas will also stream along the magnetic fields toward the bottom of the gravity well, where forms a oblate high-density clump (false-color map, traced by dust thermal emission observed from the CSO with Hertz) with the short axis aligned with the magnetic field. Within this clump, there are stars forming. The picture suggests that magnetic fields play a crucial role in star formation by channeling turbulence and gravitational contraction.
~ Hua-bai Li
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