APOD: The Heart and Soul Nebulas (2014 Feb 11)

[APOD Robot]

The Heart and Soul Nebulas

Explanation: Is the heart and soul of our Galaxy located in Cassiopeia? Possibly not, but that is where two bright emission nebulas nicknamed Heart and Soul can be found. The Heart Nebula, officially dubbed IC 1805 and visible in the above zoomable view on the right, has a shape reminiscent of a classical heart symbol. Both nebulas shine brightly in the red light of energized hydrogen. Several young open clusters of stars populate the image and are visible above in blue, including the nebula centers. Light takes about 6,000 years to reach us from these nebulas, which together span roughly 300 light years. Studies of stars and clusters like those found in the Heart and Soul Nebulas have focussed on how massive stars form and how they affect their environment.

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[Ann]

This is a lovely picture by one of my favorite photographers, Leonardo Orazi. Congratulations on your APOD, Leonardo!

There is some massive star formation goiong on not far from these nebulae, so the area is a most interesting galactic region however you look at it. And when Leonardo Orazi photographs it, it certainly looks stunning.

And is it a coincidence that the Heart Nebula gets an APOD just as Valentine's Day is coming up?

Ann

[Boomer12k]

Oh, yes....very nice picture...very vivid colors...and the clusters...

kudos

:---[===] *

[starsurfer]

This region looks amazing in infrared images!

[Leonardo]

Thank you so much Ann ... i'm so happy !!!
Thanks to APOD staff for choice and pubblication.
Thank to all who giving a look and leave a comment about.

@starsurfer : despite the use of an modified DSLR there's a view of Maffei 1-2 galaxies in zoom view.

Leo

[Anthony Barreiro]

I wonder how the Soul nebula got its name. Usually nebulae and clusters get named based on some fanciful association to their appearance in the eyepiece of a telescope. But who knows what a soul looks like? I can only assume that the Heart nebula was named first, then some fan of Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser's classic song decided the nearby nebula should complete the pair. Or maybe they were thinking of the Joy Division song with the same title.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Lovely picture, by the way. Thanks!

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

I’m glad it wasn’t named “A Soul and Heart Nebula. One might take that the wrong way.

[Beyond]

I’m glad it wasn’t named “A Soul and Heart Nebula. One might take that the wrong way.

Now how could a Soul and Heart Nebula, possibly be taken a wrong way

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

I’m glad it wasn’t named “A Soul and Heart Nebula. One might take that the wrong way.

Beyond - My sad sense of humor was referring to the southern (most nebular) region of all of us.

[petula]

I took some pictures the other day of two golden eagles and there are orbs everywhere and to me they look like a map of stars, can i email it to you?? Or you can go to my wall and in the album "more Utah scenes" is where its located, please let me know what you think

[PhilT]

Isn't the plural of nebula nebulae ?

Please use nebulae 'going forward' (=in future for us pedantic English types), I've yet to meet anybody 'going backward'........then again they would be in different dimension so no surpise really

[rstevenson]

Isn't the plural of nebula nebulae ?

Maybe, if you're a Latin speaker, but who is nowadays? It's now common to see Englishified plurals where Latin used to be de rigeur. So yes, nebulas.

Rob

[DavidLeodis]

The explanation states the image is zoomable, but I cannot zoom into it and neither through Leonardo's website. I obviously need some software so could someone please tell me what I need to download in order to be able to zoom into the image. Thanks.

[neufer]

Isn't the plural of nebula nebulae ?

Please use nebulae 'going forward' (=in future for us pedantic English types),

Maybe, if you're a Latin speaker, but who is nowadays?
It's now common to see Englishified plurals where Latin used to be de rigeur.

So yes, nebulas.

When You've Got the Blahs
by Barton Goldsmith,August 12, 2013, in Emotional Fitness

<<You’ve got the blahs. You’re not feeling hopeless, but you’re not feeling good either. Sometimes it’s hard to put a finger on it, but it’s a normal thing for most people, and it doesn’t mean you are clinically depressed.>>

[Ann]

I checked out the zoomable image, although I wasn't able to make it zoom. And indeed, like you said, Leonardo, the nearby but extremely reddened galaxies Maffei 1 and Maffei 2 are visible in it. Maffei 2 is the faint diffuse elongated yellow-orange splotch almost exactly at bottom center, whereas Maffei 1 is brighter and slightly further to the right. Maffei 1 is a most interesting galaxy, a giant elliptical which is likely the nearest of its kind to the Earth (and to the Milky Way). Its distance is given by Wikipedia as 3–4 Mpc, or 2.85 ± 0.36 Mpc[3] or 4.4^+0.6_−0.5 Mpc[4]. (Sorry about copying so badly.) I don't have the energy to look up exactly how much a parsec is, but I believe that 3-4 Mpc is about equal to 9-13 million light-years. That makes Maffei 1 pretty darn close as giant elliptical galaxies go.

As far as I can remember, this is the first time I have actually seen Maffei 1 and 2 in a picture centered on IC 1805 and IC 1848 (the Heart and Soul Nebulae - okay, Nebulas. My spellcheck protests.). Thanks again, Leonardo!

As for the Soul Nebula, I too find its name strange. To me the Soul Nebula looks like a slightly grumpy baby, lying on its back with its head to the left (or east). This great page by Leonardo Orazi shows us that the designation of the grumpy baby's face is IC 1871.

Ann

[Anthony Barreiro]

...Maffei 1 is a most interesting galaxy, a giant elliptical which is likely the nearest of its kind to the Earth (and to the Milky Way). Its distance is given by Wikipedia as 3–4 Mpc, or 2.85 ± 0.36 Mpc[3] or 4.4^+0.6_−0.5 Mpc[4]. (Sorry about copying so badly.) I don't have the energy to look up exactly how much a parsec is, but I believe that 3-4 Mpc is about equal to 9-13 million light-years. That makes Maffei 1 pretty darn close as giant elliptical galaxies go.

...

According to this handy conversion calculator, 3.5 million parsecs are roughly equal to 11.4 million light years.

As for the Soul Nebula, I too find its name strange. To me the Soul Nebula looks like a slightly grumpy baby, lying on its back with its head to the left (or east). This great page by Leonardo Orazi shows us that the designation of the grumpy baby's face is IC 1871.

Ann

Grumpy babies got soul.