Starship Asterisk*

Melotte 15 in the Heart

Explanation: Cosmic clouds form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. The clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula's newborn star cluster, Melotte 15. About 1.5 million years young, the cluster stars are toward the right in this colorful skyscape, along with dark dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas. A composite of narrowband and broadband telescopic images, the view spans about 30 light-years and includes emission from ionized hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms mapped to green, red, and blue hues in the popular Hubble Palette. Wider field images reveal that IC 1805's simpler, overall outline suggests its popular name - The Heart Nebula. IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia.

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Awesome....my pareidolia is kicking in...there is a NEARLY Elephant head with raised trunk at the bottom middle...the darker part being the raised trunk. And a close PEACOCK in the middle right side. Long neck rising up...just left of the pinkish stars...but then it is probably just me....

Really nice image. Always amazes me..."OXYGEN in blue..." Oxygen I associate with Bacteria growth in Stromatolites, in Earth's ancient oceans. To have Oxygen in space as a seemingly abundant element always seems odd...but then....Comets and Ort Clouds, and Moons have ICE....Hydrogen and Oxygen...so I guess I should get over my surprise....
The chance for "water worlds" seems very likely to me....

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Boomer12k wrote:...there is a NEARLY Elephant head with raised trunk at the bottom middle...

Another elephant is over - and a bit right of it. His trunk points exactly to the head of the colleague. They have a chat.
The evidence: The cosmos is full of elephants...

Thanks, Ivan!

ThePiper wrote:

Boomer12k wrote:...there is a NEARLY Elephant head with raised trunk at the bottom middle...

Another elephant is over - and a bit right of it. His trunk points exactly to the head of the colleague. They have a chat.
The evidence: The cosmos is full of elephants...

Thanks, Ivan!

Perhaps the elephants are all making trunk calls! Sorry for that but someone was surely bound to be at least thinking it.

It's a superb image. Ivan Eder's website has lots of equally excellent astrophotography images.