Starship Asterisk*

Still Life with NGC 2170

Explanation: In this beautiful celestial still life composed with a cosmic brush, dusty nebula NGC 2170 shines at the upper left. Reflecting the light of nearby hot stars, NGC 2170 is joined by other bluish reflection nebulae, a compact red emission region, and streamers of obscuring dust against a backdrop of stars. Like the common household items still life painters often choose for their subjects, the clouds of gas, dust, and hot stars pictured here are also commonly found in this setting - a massive, star-forming molecular cloud in the constellation Monoceros. The giant molecular cloud, Mon R2, is impressively close, estimated to be only 2,400 light-years or so away. At that distance, this canvas would be about 15 light-years across.

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http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 87#p139087

APOD: 2010 Oct 15 - Vista with NGC 2170
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21587
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=21417

APOD: 2009 Jan 14 - NGC 2170: Celestial Still Life
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15228

APOD: 2007 Feb 28 - Stars, Dust and Nebula in NGC 2170
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10197

APOD: 2006 Aug 05 - Still Life with NGC 2170
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5339

APOD: 2006 Mar 03 - Still Life with NGC 2170

Are these images real?

Let's say real for the naked eye considering the case that it could be able for a human being to come closer enough.

Disregarding indeed the false colour images, and taking into account only the light enhancement, maybe even a black shoe on earth under sunlight with enough light enhancement will result in a bright full colourful piece. Is this the "real" image of the black shoe perceived for a human being?

Maybe it is not only me interested in knowing the aspect of the universe just to the naked eye close enough to the sidereal objects.

Thank you and all the best for 2011!

The photo is stunning enough to be saved as wallpaper: which I did! Thanks APOD

Does anyone else see a demon materializing out of "space" and swooping in for the attack in this still life?
It is an absolutely breathtaking image.

It looks like a horse's head with a mane. The open area with the blue star is an eye.
Cool pic.

It looks like a person with a shiny mask and an a sword held aloft standing on the back of some giant winged beast swooping into battle. New wallpaper for me too!

This is a fantastic portrait of a remarkable star forming region, taken by a highly skillful and wonderfully dedicated astroimager, Adam Block.

Perhaps the most dramatic aspect of this skyscape is the torn and tattered shreds of apparently coal-black dust. The dark color of the dust is due to the fact that it is neither backlit nor illuminated in such a way that it scatters light. But perhaps it may indeed contain tiny, tiny grains of coal, too, so that it may be coal-black for real. The tattered appearance of the dust is a powerful reminder of the energetic events accompanying starbirth. The dust is clearly pounded by strong outflows and perhaps jets from from the baby stars in the nebula.

At center left of the picture the dust turns reddish-brown. Here the dust is indeed backlit by, probably, a combination of smallish emission nebulae associated with jets of the not yet fully formed stars in the nebula and highly reddened light emerging from the young stars buried in the dust.

Blue reflection nebulae are also seen. Here dust scatters blue starlight in much the same way as the atmosphere of the Earth scatters blue light from the Sun all over the Earth's sky. The stars associated with the reflection nebulae in this picture are hotter and bluer than the Sun, however. The blue-looking dust appears to be lined up along magnetic lines associated with the nebulae.

There is a magenta-colored "backdrop" to most of the nebular action here. The magenta color is almost certainly caused by a combination of dust-scattered blue light from hot stars and a relatively faint largish pink emission nebula, caused by the ultraviolet light of the hot stars and perhaps also powered by jets and outflows of the baby stars.

All in all, this is a fantastic region of the sky, extremely dramatic and wonderfully colorful in appearance. And Adam Block has created a superb image of it all.

Ann

There are several images, many provided by APOD as well, which contain NGC 2170 but this particular is the most striking. Yet the image is small pixel-wise and the ~700 kB image isn't as nicely presented until it is reduced to 160 kB seen on the APOD and Blocks linked page. The black to brown areas of the image are the most striking at that.

Thanks for your analysis Ann. I learn more every time you do that.

Rob

PS
I hope you're having a colourful holiday.

Where's a good fly-swatter nebula when you need one