APOD: NGC 4372 and the Dark Doodad (2013 Jan 31)

[APOD Robot]

NGC 4372 and the Dark Doodad

Explanation: The delightful Dark Doodad Nebula drifts through southern skies, a tantalizing target for binoculars in the constellation Musca, The Fly. The dusty cosmic cloud is seen against rich starfields just south of the prominent Coalsack Nebula and the Southern Cross. Stretching for about 3 degrees across this scene the Dark Doodad seems punctuated at its southern tip (lower left) by globular star cluster NGC 4372. Of course NGC 4372 roams the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy, a background object some 20,000 light-years away and only by chance along our line-of-sight to the Dark Doodad. The Dark Doodad's well defined silhouette belongs to the Musca molecular cloud, but its better known alliterative moniker was first coined by astro-imager and writer Dennis di Cicco in 1986 while observing comet Halley from the Australian outback. The Dark Doodad is around 700 light-years distant and over 30 light-years long.

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[neufer]

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[BDanielMayfield]

Looks like a spaceship had a really bad oil leak!

[Ann]

Aah, the Dark Doodad in Musca the Fly, with blue Alpha Muscae (at least I think it is Alpha, but I don't have my software here so I can check) and yellowish globular NGC 4372! What a nice picture!

Note the generations of stars and possible star formation that we are looking at here. If NGC 4372 is a typical globular, then it is likely 10-12 billion years old. B-type Alpha Muscae may be a few million or at most a few tens of million years old, and the Dark Doodad, who knows, may give birth to one or more baby stars in the future.

It's interesting that the Dark Doodad is so elongated. But then, molecular clouds in the Milky Way, the sites of future star formation, often are.

Ann

[ta152h0]

hmmmmmm wonder if this is the carpet mr Solomon got a ride on ???? just musing

[alter-ego]

Aah, the Dark Doodad in Musca the Fly, with blue Alpha Muscae (at least I think it is Alpha, but I don't have my software here so I can check) and yellowish globular NGC 4372! What a nice picture!

Hi Anne. It's ɣ Mus

[Ann]

So it's Gamma Muscae! Thanks, alter-ego!

Ann

[FLPhotoCatcher]

Does anyone notice a line of stars parallel to the bottom of the photo? It runs through the bright star there. Am I just seeing things? If it's real, what could have caused it?

[Boomer12k]

Not a Doodad....To me, A Martial Arts Instructor, it looks like a Fantasy Sword you could buy from BudK.com

Nice Picture!!!

:---[===] *

[K1NS]

You say every one of those tiny dots has planets orbiting around it ? . . . Oh !

[Chris Peterson]

Does anyone notice a line of stars parallel to the bottom of the photo? It runs through the bright star there. Am I just seeing things? If it's real, what could have caused it?

I'm not sure what you're seeing (there are lines of stars everywhere), but I'm pretty confident in suggesting that what caused it is your brain. Because that's what our brains do... find patterns.

[Boomer12k]

Does anyone notice a line of stars parallel to the bottom of the photo? It runs through the bright star there. Am I just seeing things? If it's real, what could have caused it?

I'm not sure what you're seeing (there are lines of stars everywhere), but I'm pretty confident in suggesting that what caused it is your brain. Because that's what our brains do... find patterns.

Chris, I see what he means...there APPEARS to be two parallel lines of stars, it does look weird, like it is some type of pattern. And it continues to the right, though and past the blue star at the bottom left in the photo. BUT, I think you are correct it is just what our brains latch on to. Like my brain seeing a SWORD, and not just a funny DOODAD of Dust.
FLP....we have a tendency to "connect the dots"...that is why we have Constellations. It does look strange, but they are all through out the photo, lines of stars, above and below the center, as well as other places. I do see it too. But I don't think it is a photo artifact or anything. I also see a man lying on his back looking up....at the stars perhaps??? It is not STARS, but it is the dark spaces in between stars. From the top right of the Doodad, to the left over to the the blue star. We have such fascinating IMAGINATIONS, don't we????

:---[===] *

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

[quote="BDanielMayfield"][/quote]

Humming Dionne Warwick's tune and altering the lyrics a bit

Do you know the way to San “Zetox”? From a couple of days ago in Neufer’s very informative blast from my childhood. It’s probably the “Great Gazo” heading home after banishment. Let’s see?

If we take into account the stone age to the 60’s, measured the length of his exhaust plume, throw in a few more variables - we might be able to get an idea on how to find San “Zetox”

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

I'll get the BBCode down soon.

[moonstruck]

Aww...Th Dark Doodad...a name I can finally understand

[Anthony Barreiro]

Does anyone notice a line of stars parallel to the bottom of the photo? It runs through the bright star there. Am I just seeing things? If it's real, what could have caused it?

I'm not sure what you're seeing (there are lines of stars everywhere), but I'm pretty confident in suggesting that what caused it is your brain. Because that's what our brains do... find patterns.

Here's an interesting article from CNN about how our brains respond to common artistic illusions.

Pablo Picasso once said, "We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies."

[FLPhotoCatcher]

Does anyone notice a line of stars parallel to the bottom of the photo? It runs through the bright star there. Am I just seeing things? If it's real, what could have caused it?

I'm not sure what you're seeing (there are lines of stars everywhere), but I'm pretty confident in suggesting that what caused it is your brain. Because that's what our brains do... find patterns.

Chris, I see what he means...there APPEARS to be two parallel lines of stars, it does look weird, like it is some type of pattern. And it continues to the right, though and past the blue star at the bottom left in the photo. BUT, I think you are correct it is just what our brains latch on to. Like my brain seeing a SWORD, and not just a funny DOODAD of Dust.
FLP....we have a tendency to "connect the dots"...that is why we have Constellations. It does look strange, but they are all through out the photo, lines of stars, above and below the center, as well as other places. I do see it too. But I don't think it is a photo artifact or anything. I also see a man lying on his back looking up....at the stars perhaps??? It is not STARS, but it is the dark spaces in between stars. From the top right of the Doodad, to the left over to the the blue star. We have such fascinating IMAGINATIONS, don't we????

:---[===] *

Indeed, it is some type of pattern. There is a roughly straight line of stars that look closer together from our perspective. It is real. What caused it?

[DavidLeodis]

I was unsure of what a Doodad is though the word did seem familiar as if it had been used before in an APOD and on searching for Doodad I found the Dark Doodad Nebula was the subject of the APOD of December 8 2008. In the explanation to that it stated "Doodad is slang for a thingy or a whatchamacallit", so now I know!

For some reason I'm now mentally singing the "Zip a dee doo dah" song.

[owlice]

My, oh my, what a wonderful day.

[DavidLeodis]

My, oh my, what a wonderful day.

[rstevenson]

... Indeed, it is some type of pattern. There is a roughly straight line of stars that look closer together from our perspective. It is real. What caused it?

It is a pattern. It is not real, in the sense of being an actual line of stars in space. It is "caused" by our brain, as has been explained. Note that this "line" will certainly include stars which are at widely varying distances from us, so that if you moved far enough away from the Earth the line would disappear. But you'd likely see one or more lines elsewhere. Indeed you can see coincidental lines of stars in any picture showing a large number of stars.

Rob

[owlice]

Plenty of sunshine coming my way.

[Beyond]

zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-a.