The Fairy of Eagle Nebula (APOD 09 Dec 2007)

[orin stepanek]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071209.html
The Fairy of Eagle Nebula; Wow; What imaginations: an alien beast; a fairy; I don't even see an eagle, Maybe a beast. To me it looks like maybe a moose head on top of some being. OOPS; Looks like I have an imagination also! At any rate it is an awesome photo.
Orin

[Case]

I don't even see an eagle

You'd have to "zoom out" to see the whole eagle. The fairy is just a small detail in the nebula. See http://www.kwastronomy.com/M16_Eagle_Nebula.htm for a wider angle image.

[auroradude]

It looks like a slug leaving a trail to me - but a really incredibly beautiful slug!

[rigelan]

I thought the dust trail looked like the 'finger of God' image from Michaelangelo.

[Ezlington]

The Fairy of Eagle Nebula

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071209.html

"The above image in scientifically re-assigned colors"...

That description seems strange.

If it was not "we changed the colours to make it pretty",
what was the scientific basis?

"Red- shift subtracted"
is all I can think of as a scientifically justified basis
(and I think I just made that up!)

May I have a laymans definition of
"scientifically re-assigned colors"


Sincerely,

[auroradude]

Let me take a stab at "scientifically reassigned colors".

I take it to mean that this image is in "false color". Some, if not all of the wavelengths that the image was recorded in were probably in parts of the spectrum not visible to us. i.e. in the ultraviolet spectrum. So then visible colors are assigned to the different wavelengths arbitrairily but perhaps to bring out the best contrast possible.
The bluish color, for instance, is assigned to emissions by oxygen. The reddish is assigned to hydrogen emissions. This would then allow a viewer to gleam science from the image knowing what gasses were located where by their "assigned" colors.

That the image is beautiful is perhaps just a by-product of the science and truly only in the eye of the beholder.

[orin stepanek]

I don't even see an eagle

You'd have to "zoom out" to see the whole eagle. The fairy is just a small detail in the nebula. See http://www.kwastronomy.com/M16_Eagle_Nebula.htm for a wider angle image.

Thanks but I still have trouble picturing an eagle. http://www.kwastronomy.com/M16_Eagle_Nebula.htm but that's OK It's still fun to imagine features in nebulae; same as imagining figures in clouds.
Orin