APOD: The Southern Cliff in the Lagoon (2011 May 11)

[APOD Robot]

The Southern Cliff in the Lagoon

Explanation: Undulating bright ridges and dusty clouds cross this close-up of the nearby star forming region M8, also known as the Lagoon Nebula. A sharp, false-color composite of narrow band visible and broad band near-infrared data from the 8-meter Gemini South Telescope, the entire view spans about 20 light-years through a region of the nebula sometimes called the Southern Cliff. The highly detailed image explores the association of many newborn stars imbedded in the tips of the bright-rimmed clouds and Herbig-Haro objects. Abundant in star-forming regions, Herbig-Haro objects are produced as powerful jets emitted by young stars in the process of formation heat the surrounding clouds of gas and dust. The cosmic Lagoon is found some 5,000 light-years away toward constellation Sagittarius and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.

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[mexhunter]

It's a fabulous image.
Superb handling of the narrow-band methods and well processed.
Impeccable!
Greetings
César

[Beyond]

Cesar -- impeccable?? Nothings impeccable, just ask any chicken. To them nothing is impeccable, they peck everything But that sure is one very good looking picture!!

[mexhunter]

Hi Beyond:
Español:
impecable - pulcritud
English:
faultless - immaculate - impeccable - spotless - fault - flawless - pristine - scrupulously - unimpeachable.
With many words, I turn to the dictionary, perhaps another word would have been better, but in this case was chosen by the most similar to Spanish.
In any case, the image is fantastic.
Many greetings
César

[owlice]

César, Beyond was just using "impeccable" for word play. It's a great image, and "impeccable" is a great word to use to describe it, especially for someone familiar with processing images.

It is certainly a fantastic image, too!

[Guest]

Does anyone else see E.T. about a quarter in on the right or is it just me?

[Guest]

Forget ET. Two of Red Dwarf's Starbugs are in the top left! Can't see the 'Infinity welcomes careful drivers' sign though.

[orin stepanek]

The picture is simply beautiful! I wish it was wallpaper shaped though!

[nstahl]

I agree. It's outstanding. Coming here for knowledge is great but it's also nice to be blown away like this once in a while.

[bystander]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23597

[awfoy@rogers.com]

Good morning.

Has anyone noted the distinct and almost total face profile located to the right in today's picture? Perrhaps it is the spirit of the Lagoon's god?

Wayne Foy

[biddie67]

What a magnificent APOD!! I'd love to have a poster made of this photo.

[Ailean4321]

Love this photo! Absolutely beautiful.
The caption says its in "false-color." What exactly does that mean?

[Chris Peterson]

The caption says its in "false-color." What exactly does that mean?

Very often, we learn more from astronomical data when it is presented in a different color palette than we would see with our eyes (assuming our eyes were sensitive enough to see such a dim object in color). Sometimes this is because astronomical objects show subtle detail in a color range where our eyes have poor color discrimination (deep red or deep blue, for instance), and sometimes it is because the data is collected in some band (infrared, x-ray, etc) where our eyes have no response at all.

In this case, the object is presented with the narrowband emission of hydrogen mapped to red on your monitor, the narrowband emission of sulfur mapped to green, and broadband near infrared mapped to blue.

[Guest]

On the left moving right, I see a gorilla's face in profile with his mouth open (as though singing), a lamprey, a turtle's head, and a natural sponge. On the right, I see many things, including Puss-n-Boots's head (with hat!), a hooded cobra with an eagle's head, and an ostrich head.

[BMAONE23]

On the left moving right, I see a gorilla's face in profile with his mouth open (as though singing), a lamprey, a turtle's head, and a natural sponge. On the right, I see many things, including Puss-n-Boots's head (with hat!), a hooded cobra with an eagle's head, and an ostrich head.

Funny,
I don't see the Gorilla as a Gorilla, I see Homer Simpson in profile. Caution, once seen it can't be unseen!!!


The second face image

[owlice]

Ow, BMAONE23! My eyes! My eyes!!

I see the profile of the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz in the center of the image.

[superdave]

What a beautiful awesome part of God's creation!! I love this website because of the awesome pics!! It sure is totally different than looking at it visually thru a 'scope!

[superdave]

Yeah, as for seeing things---I do see ET right in the deep red area and profile of a gorilla clear on the left part and what looks like a caveman just to the right of that. COOL!

[Amos Van Der Lube]

OK, I'll take a crack at this one....:

• On the very left edge, there appears to be a half a cat (No Relations with Eric the Half a Bee).
• The face of a quaker looking up and toward the brightest star in the picture.
• Right under his chin, facing the opposite direction, seems to be a dog of one form or another.
• Next is some sort of marmot or badger or something like that. Next is a tie between a bird that's just about to fly of, a sheep or perhaps a marmot, and a mountain gorilla.
• after a few inches of nothing, we find, standing out in the doorway, a face in a cocoon, followed by a raven
• There's a pillar of star creation just about dead center that looks far too ... *ahem* we'll leave it up to the imagination.
• Some sort of otter is just right of center. Looks like he's winking. directly under him appears to be a faxe looking just slightly to the viewer's left (his right)
• and, most importantly, I see lots and lots of hydrogen that looks lie a VERY fertile ground for star formation.

[bcasa]

Changing the subject a little, it would be interesting if in the information some discussion was made as to approximately when this occured, since it is so many light years away, and how different it might look if you could see what it looks like now.

[neufer]

it would be interesting if in the information some discussion was made as to approximately when this occured, since it is so many light years away, and how different it might look if you could see what it looks like now.

The observed Herbig–Haro objects (from 5,000 lyrs away) no longer exist.

Images taken over five years reveal the motion of material in HH47.

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<<Herbig–Haro objects (HH) are small patches of nebulosity associated with newly born stars, and are formed when gas ejected by young stars collides with clouds of gas and dust nearby at speeds of several hundred kilometres per second. Herbig–Haro objects are ubiquitous in star-forming regions, and several are often seen around a single star, aligned along its rotational axis.

HH objects are transient phenomena, lasting not more than a few thousand years. They can evolve visibly over quite short timescales as they move rapidly away from their parent star into the gas clouds in interstellar space (the interstellar medium or ISM). Hubble Space Telescope observations reveal complex evolution of HH objects over a few years, as parts of them fade while others brighten as they collide with clumpy material in the interstellar medium.

Spectroscopic observations of HH objects show they are moving away from the source stars at speeds of 100 to 1000 km/s. In recent years, the high optical resolution of Hubble Space Telescope observations has revealed the proper motion of many HH objects in observations spaced several years apart. These observations have also allowed estimates of the distances of some HH objects via the expansion parallax method.

As they move away from the parent star, HH objects evolve significantly, varying in brightness on timescales of a few years. Individual knots within an object may brighten and fade or disappear entirely, while new knots have been seen to appear. As well as changes caused by interactions with the ISM, interactions between jets moving at different speeds within HH objects also cause variations.

The eruption of jets from the parent stars occurs in pulses rather than as a steady stream. The pulses may produce jets of gas moving in the same direction but at different speeds, and interactions between different jets create so-called "working surfaces", where streams of gases collide and generate shock waves.>>