Starship Asterisk*

APOD Robot wrote:
For reasons unknown, NGC 6357 is forming some of the most massive stars ever discovered.

NGC 3603-A1 is a massive, double-eclipsing binary star system located in NGC 3603, about 20,000 light years from Earth. Its two component stars circle each other every 3.77 days. The mass of NGC 3603-A1a is 116 ± 31 solar masses and 89 ± 16 solar masses for NGC 3603-A1b.[2] This makes them the two most massive stars directly measured so far, i.e. their masses have been determined (using Keplerian orbits), and not estimated. Both show an emission-line spectrum (spectral type WN6h).

This nebula includes the open cluster Pismis 24, which is home to several massive stars. One of the brightest stars in the cluster, Pismis 24-1, was thought possibly to be the most massive on record, approaching 300 solar masses, until it was discovered to be a triple star, with large components exceeding 100 solar masses.[4] The central star in the nebula is actually one of the most massive known, with a mass exceeding 200 solar masses.

APOD Robot wrote: A Massive Star in NGC 6357

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_on_Bald_Mountain wrote:

Millions of 20th-century listeners owe their initial acquaintance with Mussorgsky's tone-poem to the use within Walt Disney's 1940 film Fantasia of a specially produced version made by Leopold Stokowski. Stokowski based it on the Rimsky-Korsakov arrangement in form and content but Mussorgsky's original in orchestration. However, like Rimsky-Korsakov himself, Stokowski had no copy of the original tone poem from 1867, so he did what he felt Mussorgsky would have done. The Stokowski arrangements are only rarely heard today, Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestratrion being the concert favorite.

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<<Night on Bald Mountain is a composition by Modest Mussorgsky that exists in at least two versions—a seldom performed 1867 version or a later (1886) and very popular "fantasy for orchestra" arranged by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, A Night on the Bare Mountain (Ночь на лысой горе, Noch' na lysoy gorye). The Russian word "лысая" (lïsaya) literally means "bald", but is used in this case figuratively for a mountain supposedly barren of trees. In English, the titles A Night on the Bare Mountain or Night on Bald Mountain are used.

Inspired by Russian literary works and legend, Mussorgsky made a witches' sabbath the theme of the original tone poem, completed on June 23, 1867 (St. John's Eve).

A sheet of paper apparently found among Mussorgsky's manuscripts contains the following statement: "Program of the opera St. John's Night, in three acts, after the tale by Gogol, written by P. Boborykin, in the presence and with the help of Modest Mussorgsky, Yevgeny Mussorgsky, and Vasily. Witness to the proceedings: Mily Balakirev." This curious fragment, dated December 25, 1858, has been interpreted as an indication of Mussorgsky's intention of writing an opera on the subject of Gogol's short story St. John's Eve (Russian: Вечер накануне Ивана Купала, Vecher nakanune Ivana Kupala, St. John's Eve). Gogol's tale contains the elements of witchcraft common to other stories in the Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka collection, but does not, as is often claimed, feature a witches' sabbath. Although Mussorgsky may have composed thematic sketches for this project, his plans were not mentioned.

Rimsky-Korsakov declares in his memoirs (Chronicle of My Musical Life) that in the early 1860s Mussorgsky had written a version of the Night on Bald Mountain music for piano and orchestra, under the influence of Franz Liszt's Totentanz. However, it is believed that Mussorgsky did not hear Liszt's work until 1866, by which time he was planning the orchestral tone poem St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain. No trace of a work for piano and orchestra has survived outside Rimsky-Korsakov's recollections, so it is assumed that the score was lost, or, more likely, that it had never existed.

In 1866 Mussorgsky wrote to Balakirev expressing a desire to discuss his plans for The Witches, his informal name for his Night on Bald Mountain music. In early June 1867, he began composing the orchestral version of the piece, and finished the score on 23 June (St. John's Eve). He described the event in a letter to Vladimir Nikolsky: "My St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain is, in form and character, Russian and original; and I want to feel sure that it is thoroughly in keeping with historic truth and Russian folk tradition — otherwise it would not be good enough. I wrote it quickly, straight away in full score without preliminary rough drafts, in twelve days. It seethed within me, and I worked day and night, hardly knowing what was happening within me. And now I see in my wicked prank an independent Russian product, free from German profundity and routine, and, like my Savishna, grown on our country's soil and nurtured on Russian bread."

Russian legend tells of a witches' sabbath taking place on St. John's Night (June 23–24) on the Lysa Hora (Bald Mountain), near Kiev: "So far as my memory doesn't deceive me, the witches used to gather on this mountain, gossip, play tricks and await their chief — Satan. On his arrival they, i.e. the witches, formed a circle round the throne on which he sat, in the form of a kid, and sang his praise. When Satan was worked up into a sufficient passion by the witches' praises, he gave the command for the sabbath, in which he chose for himself the witches who caught his fancy."

Having finally completed the work, Mussorgsky was crushed when his mentor Mily Balakirev was savagely critical of it. The score of this 'first version' was put aside, and did not appear in print until 1968.

In the years after Mussorgsky's death, his friends prepared his manuscripts for publication and created performing editions of his unfinished works to enable them to enter the repertoire. The majority of the editorial work was done by Rimsky-Korsakov, who in 1886 produced a redacted edition of A Night on the Bare Mountain from the Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad vocal score and premiered at the first of the Russian Symphony Concerts: “Subterranean sounds of unearthly voices. Appearance of the Spirits of Darkness, followed by that of Chornobog. Glorification of Chornobog and celebration of the Black Mass. Witches’ Sabbath. At the height of the orgy, the bell of the little village church is heard from afar. The Spirits of Darkness are dispersed. Daybreak.” —Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov>>

APOD Robot wrote:
<<NGC 6357 houses the open star cluster Pismis 24, home to many of these tremendously bright and blue stars. The central part of NGC 6357 shown spans about 10 light years and lies about 8,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Scorpion.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutum%E2%80%93Centaurus_Arm wrote:
<<The Scutum–Centaurus Arm (also known as Scutum-Crux arm), is a long, diffuse curving streamer of stars, gas and dust that spirals outward from the proximate end of the long Milky Way bar. As the Milky Way is classified as a barred spiral galaxy, this feature is termed a spiral arm. It is one of two major spiral arms, and it lies between the minor Carina–Sagittarius Arm and Perseus Arm—the second major arm. The Scutum–Centaurus Arm arm starts near the core as the Scutum Arm, then gradually turns into the Centaurus Arm.

The region where the Scutum–Centaurus Arm arm connects to the bar of the galaxy is rich in star-forming regions. In 2006 a large cluster of new stars containing 14 red supergiant stars was discovered there and named RSGC1. In 2007 a cluster of approximately 50,000 newly formed stars named RSGC2 was located only a few hundred light years from RSGC1; it is thought to be less than 20 million years old and contains 26 red supergiant stars, the largest grouping of such stars known. Other clusters in this region include RSGC3 and Alicante 8.>>

neufer wrote:The Stokowski arrangements are only rarely heard today, Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestratrion being the concert favorite.

owlice wrote:

neufer wrote:
Russian legend tells of a witches' sabbath taking place on St. John's Night (June 23–24) on the Lysa Hora (Bald Mountain), near Kiev:

"So far as my memory doesn't deceive me, the witches used to gather on this mountain, gossip, play tricks and await their chief — Satan. On his arrival they, i.e. the witches, formed a circle round the throne on which he sat, in the form of a kid, and sang his praise. When Satan was worked up into a sufficient passion by the witches' praises, he gave the command for the sabbath, in which he chose for himself the witches who caught his fancy."

The Stokowski arrangements are only rarely heard today.

The NSO performed the Stokowski arrangement summer of last year at Wolf Trap.
It was great fun! Also on the program, Carmina Burana. Fun, fun program!

neufer wrote: And here I thought that that broomstick gag was just a joke.

Art Neuendorffer

P.S., Edward de Vere died on St. John's Day, 1604 and was subsequently deposed by a bald mountebank.

owlice wrote:
I thought the throne thing you had going on was just a joke, too, but seeing was believing!

DavidLeodis wrote:I am a bit confused (as usual ). Is the very bright star in the APOD part of Pismis 24 or not . Clicking on the APOD brings up a larger field-of-view image that is also reproduced in an earlier post by Ann in which it states it "is another image of NGC 6357, showing more of the cluster Pismis 24". The "showing more" would seem therefore to imply that the bright star in the APOD is part of Pismis 24. Thanks for any help.

DavidLeodis wrote:
I am a bit confused (as usual ). Is the very bright star in the APOD part of Pismis 24 or not . Clicking on the APOD brings up a larger field-of-view image that is also reproduced in an earlier post by Ann in which it states it "is another image of NGC 6357, showing more of the cluster Pismis 24". The "showing more" would seem therefore to imply that the bright star in the APOD is part of Pismis 24.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6357#Pismis_24 wrote:
<<NGC 6357 is a diffuse nebula near NGC 6334 in the constellation Scorpius. This nebula was given the name War and Peace Nebula by the Midcourse Space Experiment scientists because of its appearance. They said that in infrared images the bright, western part resembles a dove, while the eastern part looks like a skull. The nebula contains many proto-stars shielded by dark disks of gas, and young stars wrapped in expanding "cocoons".>>

DavidLeodis wrote:
I had also wondered about the name Pismis, so it is good to know it is named after Mr Pismis.

neufer wrote:

DavidLeodis wrote:
I had also wondered about the name Pismis, so it is good to know it is named after Mr Pismis.

Is there a Mrs Pismis

Ann wrote:
Here is another image of Pismis 24 and the star in today's APOD:

The bluish-pink area in the middle of the picture is exactly the part of the
nebula that was strongly turquoise in the Hubble palette image of NGC 6357.
This is the most highly ionized part of the nebula.

Ann wrote:
Similarly, in today's APOD, it could be that the colliding stellar winds create the strong emission nebula between the cluster and the star inside a cavity of gas and dust.

Ann

GaryR wrote:

Ann wrote:
Similarly, in today's APOD, it could be that the colliding stellar winds create the strong emission nebula between the cluster and the star inside a cavity of gas and dust.

Ann

Huh? I thought it was the intense ultraviolet light from the massive stars that causes the emission nebula. Stellar wind just blows the gas away.

Gary

neufer wrote:

Ann wrote:
Here is another image of Pismis 24 and the star in today's APOD:

The bluish-pink area in the middle of the picture is exactly the part of the
nebula that was strongly turquoise in the Hubble palette image of NGC 6357.
This is the most highly ionized part of the nebula.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081009.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061220.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991207.html