Starship Asterisk*

Rho Ophiuchi (oh'-fee-yu-kee)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080215.html

• Finnegans Wake page 494: Talk about iridecencies!
  Ruby and beryl and chrysolite, jade, sapphire, jasper and lazul.
  -- Orca Bellona! Heavencry at earthcall, etnat athos?
  Extinct your vulcanology for the lava of Moltens!
  -- It's you not me's in erupting, hecklar!
  -- Ophiuchus being visible above thorizon, muliercula
  occluded by Satarn's serpent ring system,the pisciolinnies Nova
  Ardonis and Prisca Parthenopea, are a bonnies feature in the
  northern sky. Ers, Mores and Merkery are surgents below the rim
  of the Zenith Part while Arctura, Anatolia, Hesper and Mesembria
  weep in their mansions over Noth, Haste, Soot and Waste.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970922.html

<<Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so colorful? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces blue reflection nebulae. Gaseous clouds whose atoms are excited by ultraviolet starlight produce reddish emission nebulae. Backlit dust clouds block starlight and so appear dark. Antares, a red supergiant and one of the brighter stars in the night sky, lights up the yellow-red clouds on the upper left. Rho Ophiuchi lies at the center of the blue nebula on the right. The distant globular cluster M4 is visible just below Antares, and to the left of the red cloud engulfing Sigma Scorpii. These star clouds are even more colorful than humans can see, emitting light across the electromagnetic spectrum.>>

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960312.html

<<The many spectacular colors of the Rho Ophiuchi (oh'-fee-yu-kee) clouds highlight the many processes that occur there. The blue regions shine primarily by reflected light. Blue light from the star rho Ophiuchi and nearby stars reflects more efficiently off this portion of the nebula than red light. The Earth's daytime sky appears blue for the same reason. The red and yellow regions shine primarily because of emission of the nebula's atomic and molecular gas. Light from nearby stars - particularly the bright star Antares in this case - knocks electrons away from the gas, which then shines when the electrons recombine with the gas. The dark regions are caused by dust grains - born in young stellar atmospheres - which effectively block light emitted behind them. The Rho Ophiuchi star clouds, well in front of the globular cluster M4 visible on far lower left, are even more colorful than humans can see - the clouds emits light in every wavelength band from the radio to the gamma-ray.>>

Wow... look at the increase in image quality.



So the purplish glow is from a mixture of starlight causing blue reflection nebulae and the ultraviolet light causing red emission nebulae?

What does this region look like in visible light (what humans can see)?

Arramon wrote:Wow... look at the increase in image quality.

So the purplish glow is from a mixture of starlight causing blue reflection nebulae and the ultraviolet light causing red emission nebulae?

In visible light, yes:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070903.html

The visibly dark dust patches in the above are what is
emphasized & magnified in the current INFRARED APOD:
The http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080215.html

Arramon wrote:What does this region look like in visible light (what humans can see)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kepl ... N_1604.png

Arramon wrote:What does this region look like in visible light (what humans can see)?

Antares and the next Scorpius star to it's right (Alniyat)
are the bright stars in clouds of yellow & red:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070903.html

The M4 globular cluster is "the star" just below the Scorpius line connecting Antares with Alniyat.

Blue Rho Ophiuchi is the lonesome star between the "s" in Antares and the tip end of the scorpion's leg.

The picture-objects of the old article on 2008 February 15 were lost in the folder "0802".
They may have been moved to the folder "0911”, not been copied when the new same article on 2009 November 13 came out.

FYI, one of the best Rho-Antares Region images I've ever seen was done by Jay Ballauer: http://www.allaboutastro.com/rhoantares.html

Jim Misti, Steve Mazlin, and Rob Gendler did one very nearly as nice: http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Rhomosaic.html

-Noel