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APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:15 am
by APOD Robot
A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Christmas Tree
Explanation: What do the following things have in common: a cone, the fur of a fox, and a Christmas tree? Answer: they all occur in the constellation of the unicorn (
Monoceros).
Pictured as a star forming region and
cataloged as NGC 2264, the complex jumble of cosmic gas and dust is about 2,700 light-years distant and mixes reddish
emission nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars
with dark interstellar dust clouds. Where the otherwise obscuring dust clouds lie close to the hot, young stars they also reflect starlight, forming blue
reflection nebulae. The
image spans about the diameter of a full moon, covering about 30
light-years at the distance of NGC 2264. Its cast of cosmic characters includes the
Fox Fur Nebula, whose convoluted pelt lies on the lower right, bright
variable star S Mon visible just above the Fox Fur, and the
Cone Nebula on the image left. Given their distribution, the stars of NGC 2264 are also known as the
Christmas Tree star cluster. The triangular tree shape traced by the stars appears here with its apex at the
Cone Nebula on the left with its broader base near
S Mon on the right.
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Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:23 am
by daveover
Just wondering what the scratches on the image are from? They are especially prominent zoomed in.
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:56 am
by Ann
daveover wrote:Just wondering what the scratches on the image are from? They are especially prominent zoomed in.
They may be tracks of random high-energy particles.
Ann
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:57 am
by Ann
This is a wonderful region of star formation, brilliantly beautiful. And it is a great APOD!
Ann
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 11:05 am
by geckzilla
Ann wrote:daveover wrote:Just wondering what the scratches on the image are from? They are especially prominent zoomed in.
They may be tracks of random high-energy particles.
Dust, in this case. Cosmic rays tend to hit the atmosphere before reaching us down here. Quite a happy thing, that.
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 11:08 am
by rcolombari
Thanks to all, first.
Probably it is some kind of dust as Judy wrote.
I should have removed them using the clone tool but the desire of publishing the image before Christmas predominated
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
I'll do a second "cleaned" version in few days.
Bests,
Roberto
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 11:56 am
by starsurfer
There is a lot of star formation activity in this region. There are quite a few Herbig Haro objects visible and I think a star of FU Orionis type was also found in this area. A
paper about the Herbig Haro objects.
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 1:54 pm
by Boomer12k
An Amazing Place!! (scratches are interesting too, as to what caused them)....
:---[===] *
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:29 pm
by Ron-Astro Pharmacist
There seems to be an arching around the bright star on the right. More artifacts or something else?
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:46 pm
by pgoutdoors
What are all the many little lines on the full res version of today’s APOD, NGC2264? I haven’t seen anything like that on any other APOD.
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 4:44 pm
by Beyond
pgoutdoors wrote:What are all the many little lines on the full res version of today’s APOD, NGC2264? I haven’t seen anything like that on any other APOD.
Read the 4th post up from yours.
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 4:52 pm
by Ron-Astro Pharmacist
Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:There seems to be an arching around the bright star on the right. More artifacts or something else?
Maybe it's just part of the light echo from variable star S Mon.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130806.html
My link to "variable star" isn't working because my computer's browser is in need of a upgrade which has been completed yet. I'll take a look when I get home. S Mon is one of the many perplexities in today's APOD. Nice choice!!
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:19 pm
by Chris Peterson
Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:There seems to be an arching around the bright star on the right. More artifacts or something else?
Maybe it's just part of the light echo from variable star S Mon.
It's an artifact. Either diffraction or scatter in the source data, or a deliberate aesthetic choice in processing. You can see similar optical artifacts around all the bright stars.
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 7:25 pm
by geckzilla
It wasn't a single image. There were multiple panels and they all had to be lined up with one another. Roberto tells me there were like 540012385 of them. So that is why there are breaks and places where the large arc does not line up.
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 8:02 pm
by Ron-Astro Pharmacist
Thanks you two for answering the question. I'd love to understand how anyone could juggle that much data but I might as well wish that I could leap the Grand Canyon. I'm happy enough just looking at it.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 8:09 pm
by geckzilla
Wait till you see tomorrow's. Tomorrow's has like ten times more.
Re: APOD: A Fox Fur, a Unicorn, and a Tree... (2015 Jan 05)
Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 8:39 pm
by Ron-Astro Pharmacist
geckzilla wrote:Wait till you see tomorrow's. Tomorrow's has like ten times more.
Well then … I might as well wish I could leap the Valles Marineris..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Marineris
That's pretty good foreshadowing Geck! (Shoot – I guess I needed to compensate for gravity)
![Facepalm :facepalm:](./images/smilies/facepalm.gif)