APOD: NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula (2023 Sep 02)

[Christian G.]

No sweat, Orin. I remember that in his Cosmos TV show (from back in the eighties?), Carl Sagan said that humans and oak trees are closely related!

I bet irises and orchids are a bit more closely related than that!

Ann

Go back far enough, and we're all related. Every living thing on Earth descends from LUCA, the last universal common ancestor. About 4 billion years ago.

Yeah, and in another sense, literally everything is related - rocks, stars, humans, microbes, water, plasma, etc. - since we're all made out of the same fundamental particles adhering to the same fundamental forces. ...Well, perhaps black holes are in a class by themselves.

Talk about a cross post! I was just now typing the following - LUCA is the last universal common living ancestor, and of course it was made of molecules which were made of atoms which were made in stars which were initially made with hydrogen which was made of elementary particles which were made at the Big Bang, so humans, trees and ultimately, EVERYTHING in the entire universe is related! Isn't this marvellous?

[johnnydeep]

Go back far enough, and we're all related. Every living thing on Earth descends from LUCA, the last universal common ancestor. About 4 billion years ago.

Yeah, and in another sense, literally everything is related - rocks, stars, humans, microbes, water, plasma, etc. - since we're all made out of the same fundamental particles adhering to the same fundamental forces. ...Well, perhaps black holes are in a class by themselves.

Talk about a cross post! I was just now typing the following - LUCA is the last universal common living ancestor, and of course it was made of molecules which were made of atoms which were made in stars which were initially made with hydrogen which was made of elementary particles which were made at the Big Bang, so humans, trees and ultimately, EVERYTHING in the entire universe is related! Isn't this marvellous?

And though were still waiting to find out where dark matter and dark energy fit in the scheme of things, presumably both still occupy the same shared spacetime "continuum". But again, perhaps black holes would STILL in a class by themselves.

[johnnydeep]

Ah Chris; To me they are like orchids and I know they aren't but I looked it up and they are related! Mine are more like this!OIP.jpg

I'd say they're really not that related. They're in different phylogenetic families (Orchidaceae versus Iridaceae), but are at least in the same order (Monocot).

From https://flowerpursuits.com/are-orchids- ... s-related/

Short Answer

Orchids and irises belong to different plant families.
Orchids are part of the Orchidaceae family, and irises are part of the Iridaceae family.

However, both families are part of the larger monocot order of plants, which includes grasses, lilies, and palms.
They also both share some similar characteristics such as having showy blooms and sword-shaped foliage

I just repeated what was in the info file of the computer! what difference does it make anyway! I just gave my feelings about it anyhow!

Sorry, I meant no offense. I can be too pedantic at times, which, around here, isn't all that often since I'm sill a rank ignoramus when it comes to most things astronomical and astrophysical.

[orin stepanek]

No sweat, Orin. I remember that in his Cosmos TV show (from back in the eighties?), Carl Sagan said that humans and oak trees are closely related!

I bet irises and orchids are a bit more closely related than that!

Ann

Go back far enough, and we're all related. Every living thing on Earth descends from LUCA, the last universal common ancestor. About 4 billion years ago.

Yeah, and in another sense, literally everything is related - rocks, stars, humans, microbes, water, plasma, etc. - since we're all made out of the same fundamental particles adhering to the same fundamental forces. ...Well, perhaps black holes are in a class by themselves.

Black holes are the landfills that clean up our garbage!

[johnnydeep]

Go back far enough, and we're all related. Every living thing on Earth descends from LUCA, the last universal common ancestor. About 4 billion years ago.

Yeah, and in another sense, literally everything is related - rocks, stars, humans, microbes, water, plasma, etc. - since we're all made out of the same fundamental particles adhering to the same fundamental forces. ...Well, perhaps black holes are in a class by themselves.

Black holes are the landfills that clean up our garbage!

If only there was (a "safe") one on Earth that we could use for that purpose. Still wouldn't solve the limited resource problem though. But perhaps we could use the mini BH to generate gobs of energy!

[AVAO]

I finally got your joke but I had to visit your Flowers Around the House thread to get it. You funny Orin! Me slow!

Hi; I really do grow Iris; And I love the Iris Nebula! To me The Iris is an orchid; as it is a very delicate flower! I'll try to get a photo of it when it is in bloom. I have been having trouble downloading photos from my Canon 100 lately, but by the time the orchids are in bloom I should get it figured out!

I don't need to grow them... they grow wild here, in abundance in late spring! Certainly one of my favorite wildflowers (but they aren't orchids). So from here in Colorado, here's what I see looking up, and then looking down.
_

Hi Chris

The colors in your own image of the Iris Nebula seem much better "chosen" to me than in today's APOD. It looks so much more natural.
I am not only deeply impressed by your knowledge, but also by your ability. Thank you for sharing both here.

Jac

[orin stepanek]

Yeah, and in another sense, literally everything is related - rocks, stars, humans, microbes, water, plasma, etc. - since we're all made out of the same fundamental particles adhering to the same fundamental forces. ...Well, perhaps black holes are in a class by themselves.

Black holes are the landfills that clean up our garbage!

If only there was (a "safe") one on Earth that we could use for that purpose. Still wouldn't solve the limited resource problem though. But perhaps we could use the mini BH to generate gobs of energy!

+1

[Chris Peterson]

Hi; I really do grow Iris; And I love the Iris Nebula! To me The Iris is an orchid; as it is a very delicate flower! I'll try to get a photo of it when it is in bloom. I have been having trouble downloading photos from my Canon 100 lately, but by the time the orchids are in bloom I should get it figured out! 😎

I don't need to grow them... they grow wild here, in abundance in late spring! Certainly one of my favorite wildflowers (but they aren't orchids). So from here in Colorado, here's what I see looking up, and then looking down.
_

Hi Chris

The colors in your own image of the Iris Nebula seem much better "chosen" to me than in today's APOD. It looks so much more natural.
I am not only deeply impressed by your knowledge, but also by your ability. Thank you for sharing both here.

Jac

Thanks! I spent a lot of time on that image, taking a lot of care to match the star colors with the Gaia spectra for hundreds of them, and then allowing the reflection nebula to track the star adjustments. I think this comes as close to being considered "true color" as an astronomical image can.

[johnnydeep]

I don't need to grow them... they grow wild here, in abundance in late spring! Certainly one of my favorite wildflowers (but they aren't orchids). So from here in Colorado, here's what I see looking up, and then looking down.
_

Hi Chris

The colors in your own image of the Iris Nebula seem much better "chosen" to me than in today's APOD. It looks so much more natural.
I am not only deeply impressed by your knowledge, but also by your ability. Thank you for sharing both here.

Jac

Thanks! I spent a lot of time on that image, taking a lot of care to match the star colors with the Gaia spectra for hundreds of them, and then allowing the reflection nebula to track the star adjustments. I think this comes as close to being considered "true color" as an astronomical image can.

Matched the colors of hundreds of stars with Gaia? How’d you manage that in a reasonable amount of time?

[Chris Peterson]

Hi Chris

The colors in your own image of the Iris Nebula seem much better "chosen" to me than in today's APOD. It looks so much more natural.
I am not only deeply impressed by your knowledge, but also by your ability. Thank you for sharing both here.

Jac

Thanks! I spent a lot of time on that image, taking a lot of care to match the star colors with the Gaia spectra for hundreds of them, and then allowing the reflection nebula to track the star adjustments. I think this comes as close to being considered "true color" as an astronomical image can.

Matched the colors of hundreds of stars with Gaia? How’d you manage that in a reasonable amount of time?

With a PixInsight tool. It does the color correction against the Gaia spectral catalog in a few seconds. That's the easy part. The tricky processing comes afterwards, in how the data gets stretched out "honestly" to fill the dynamic range of the display image to maintain the color relationships in a reasonable and effective way.

[johnnydeep]

Thanks! I spent a lot of time on that image, taking a lot of care to match the star colors with the Gaia spectra for hundreds of them, and then allowing the reflection nebula to track the star adjustments. I think this comes as close to being considered "true color" as an astronomical image can.

Matched the colors of hundreds of stars with Gaia? How’d you manage that in a reasonable amount of time?

With a PixInsight tool. It does the color correction against the Gaia spectral catalog in a few seconds. That's the easy part. The tricky processing comes afterwards, in how the data gets stretched out "honestly" to fill the dynamic range of the display image to maintain the color relationships in a reasonable and effective way.