Starship Asterisk*

I've been wondering about something when I view pics like the M57 Ring Nebula at higher resolution. Just below and to the left of the nebula at the 7 o'clock position there are four stars arranged in an arch. I've seen grouping of stars like this in other pics where the stars appear to be a string of pearls. Are these in any way related to one another or are they just a fluke of alignment that makes them appear to be related? Could these be sibling stars that emerged from the same stellar nursery long ago? Just curious...

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080918.html

Without knowing exactly to which four stars you are referring, I would hazard the guess that it is a chance occurance. Multiple stars from the same stellar nursery would probably not form a regular pattern. I also believe either there would be more than just four stars, or there would be evidence of the nebula from which the stars formed. Just my opinion.

See: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apo ... ar+cluster

I also see a galaxy (barred?) about 3" at 2:00 from the nebula

jesusfreak16 wrote:I also see a galaxy (barred?) about 3" at 2:00 from the nebula

Are you referring to IC 1296 or did you spot another one? there is a more distant one at about 1:00 and in the upper right hand corner that is barely visible when you enlarge the picture. I"m sure there are more if you study the background under magnification.

Orin

It's probably IC 1296
(thanks)

JimWWhite wrote:I've been wondering about something when I view pics like the M57 Ring Nebula at higher resolution. Just below and to the left of the nebula at the 7 o'clock position there are four stars arranged in an arch. I've seen grouping of stars like this in other pics where the stars appear to be a string of pearls. Are these in any way related to one another or are they just a fluke of alignment that makes them appear to be related? Could these be sibling stars that emerged from the same stellar nursery long ago? Just curious...

I think I found them.Is the first one white and second one orange;do they get smaller(or more distant) as they arch downward?

I believe the technical term for this type of chance alignment is an Asterism a chance alignment of generally unrelated stars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterism_(astronomy)