APOD: Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka (2011 Jan 21)

[APOD Robot]

Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka

Explanation: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, are the bright bluish stars from east to west (left to right) along the diagonal in this gorgeous cosmic vista. Otherwise known as the Belt of Orion, these three blue supergiant stars are hotter and much more massive than the Sun. They lie about 1,500 light-years away, born of Orion's well-studied interstellar clouds. In fact, clouds of gas and dust adrift in this region have intriguing and some surprisingly familiar shapes, including the dark Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula near Alnitak at the lower left. The famous Orion Nebula itself lies off the bottom of this colorful star field. Recorded last December with a modified digital SLR camera and small telescope, the well-planned, two frame mosaic spans about 4 degrees on the sky.

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[Ann]

Oh, that's a great image, showing fantastic detail in this remarkable part of the sky!

Ann

[bystander]

Previous images of this region:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061229.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090210.html

and for perspective:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030207.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081015.html

[casusbellus]

This may be a stupid question:
Is it possible these 3 stars have moved a little bit in 35 years? I mean visibly? Unless I'm imagining, these three seemed to form a near perfect straight line when I was young. Now it seems there's a slight dip in the middle, or subtly crooked. Is this possible?

[rstevenson]

This may be a stupid question:
Is it possible these 3 stars have moved a little bit in 35 years? I mean visibly? Unless I'm imagining, these three seemed to form a near perfect straight line when I was young. Now it seems there's a slight dip in the middle, or subtly crooked. Is this possible?

In a posting on another forum, Scott Creighton says, "The 3 stars of Orion's belt, however, exhibit very little proper motion and so what we see of these 3 stars today is pretty much what our ancestors would have seen thousands of years ago."

Rob

[Jay]

In the right side of the image, about halfway between Mintaka and Alnilam, there is an object that appears as a smoke ring, light grey in color. Googling "smoke ring nebula" produces an object of that name, but it does not resemble the item in this image. Additionally, there appears a counterpart to this ring to its upper left at the intersection of forty-five degree angles from Mintaka and Alnilam. Or maybe I've had too much coffee this morning...

Can anyone shed some light on these items? Thanks!

[JuanAustin]

what are those two prominenet nebula in the northeast quadrant of the photo, and an even smaller one just above the larger nebula at 2 o'clock?

[bystander]

In the right side of the image, about halfway between Mintaka and Alnilam, there is an object that appears as a smoke ring, light grey in color. Googling "smoke ring nebula" produces an object of that name, but it does not resemble the item in this image. Additionally, there appears a counterpart to this ring to its upper left at the intersection of forty-five degree angles from Mintaka and Alnilam. Or maybe I've had too much coffee this morning...

Can anyone shed some light on these items? Thanks!

what are those two prominenet nebula in the northeast quadrant of the photo, and an even smaller one just above the larger nebula at 2 o'clock?

They might be Orion proplyds. See: http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... =9&t=17875

[MarkWm]

Wikipedia's entry for Alnitak states that it is 800 light-years distant, not 1500. Which is correct?

[bystander]

The link for Alnitak, as well as the link for Belt of Orion, also give the distance as ~ 800 ly.

[alphachap]

you showed practically the same image on 2009 February 10 .

[neufer]

Is it possible these 3 stars have moved a little bit in 35 years? I mean visibly? Unless I'm imagining, these three seemed to form a near perfect straight line when I was young. Now it seems there's a slight dip in the middle, or subtly crooked. Is this possible?

In a posting on another forum, Scott Creighton says, "The 3 stars of Orion's belt, however, exhibit very little proper motion and so what we see of these 3 stars today is pretty much what our ancestors would have seen thousands of years ago."

Thank goodness his pants won't fall down soon

Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweete influences of Pleiades? or loose the bands of Orion?
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season, or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sonnes?

[Finnegans Wake 621.8] Send Arctur guiddus!

<<Orion is presently located on the celestial equator, but it will not always be so located due to the effects of precession of the Earth's axis. Orion lies well south of the ecliptic, and it only happens to lie on the celestial equator because the point on the ecliptic that corresponds to the June solstice is close to the border of Gemini and Taurus, to the north of Orion. Precession will eventually carry Orion further south, and by 14,000 AD Orion will be far enough south that it will become invisible from the latitude of Great Britain.

Further in the future, Orion's stars will gradually move away from the constellation due to proper motion. However, Orion's brightest stars all lie at a large distance from the Earth on an astronomical scale—much farther away than Sirius, for example. Orion will still be recognizable long after most of the other constellations—composed of relatively nearby stars—have distorted into new configurations, with the exception of a few of its stars eventually exploding as supernovae. For example, Betelgeuse, the "right shoulder", is so large and old that it may explode and disappear within a few thousand years.>>

......................................................................................................................................

<<The Yokut Native American tribe of the California Central Valley saw the three bright stars as the foot prints of the god of the flea people. According to legend, when his five wives became itchy and ran away, three times the god of the flea people jumped into the sky to look for them. When his footprints are seen (stars are visible in the winter months) the flea people grow afraid and go into hiding (i.e. dormant). This helped explain to the tribal people why they couldn't count on those stars for guides in the summer months, and why there were no fleas about.>>

Q: Where do the insects go in the wintertime?

Mr. Answer-man: Search me?

Q: PLEASE , Mr. Answer-man

[ChrisKotsiopoulos]

Congradulations!
This is one of the best DSLR deep sky photos I have ever seen!

[Jay]

I asked:

In the right side of the image, about halfway between Mintaka and Alnilam, there is an object that appears as a smoke ring, light grey in color. Additionally, there appears a counterpart to this ring to its upper left at the intersection of forty-five degree angles from Mintaka and Alnilam. Can anyone shed some light on these items?

bystander wrote:

They might be Orion proplyds. See: http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... =9&t=17875

Thanks bystander. I took a look at the APOD large image for the proplyds and compared it to the large Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka image to see if spacing, etc., was right. The upper object might be a proplyd, but the lower one, between Alnilam and Mintaka is definitely ring shaped, more like an explosion smoke ring.

[neufer]

In the right side of the image, about halfway between Mintaka and Alnilam, there is an object that appears as a smoke ring, light grey in color. Additionally, there appears a counterpart to this ring to its upper left at the intersection of forty-five degree angles from Mintaka and Alnilam. Can anyone shed some light on these items?

They might be Orion proplyds. See: http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... =9&t=17875

Orion's prophyla... Oh, never mind.

[owlice]

Orion's prophyla... Oh, never mind.

:: bites fingers ::

[Ann]

In the right side of the image, about halfway between Mintaka and Alnilam, there is an object that appears as a smoke ring, light grey in color. Googling "smoke ring nebula" produces an object of that name, but it does not resemble the item in this image. Additionally, there appears a counterpart to this ring to its upper left at the intersection of forty-five degree angles from Mintaka and Alnilam. Or maybe I've had too much coffee this morning...

Can anyone shed some light on these items? Thanks!

Clearly in this picture the two gas clouds are light blue in color. The blue color obviously results from reflection from the supergiant blue stars in the vicinity. It is interesting to consider the possibility that the gas clouds hide infant stars and the beginnings of a solar system (although I personally expect a gas cloud that has actually started forming a star to be either coal black (because it is so still and cold) or orangish or reddish (because long-wavelength light from the star within penetrates the dust and gives the exterior a reddish color).

Ann

[bystander]

Born in Beauty: Proplyds in the Orion Nebula

---

Orion Nebula Proplyd Atlas
Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/L. Ricci (ESO)

http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... =9&t=17875

[neufer]

:: bites fingers ::

Sorely for being ina proplyd.