APOD: Dark Seahorse in Cepheus (2019 Oct 24)

[APOD Robot]

[img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_191024.jpg[/img] Dark Seahorse in Cepheus

Explanation: Light-years across, this suggestive shape known as the Seahorse Nebula appears in silhouette against a rich, luminous background of stars. Seen toward the royal northern constellation of Cepheus, the dusty, obscuring clouds are part of a Milky Way molecular cloud some 1,200 light-years distant. It is also listed as Barnard 150 (B150), one of 182 dark markings of the sky cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard. Packs of low mass stars are forming within from collapsing cores only visible at long infrared wavelengths. Still, colorful stars in Cepheus add to the pretty, galactic skyscape.

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[Boomer12k]

Nice image of it...

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[neufer]

The human hippocampus & fornix compared with a seahorse.

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<<The hippocampus (from the Greek ἱππόκαμπος, "seahorse") is a major component of the brain of humans and other vertebrates. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain. The hippocampus is part of the limbic system, and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and in spatial memory that enables navigation. The hippocampus is located under the cerebral cortex in the allocortex, and in primates it is in the medial temporal lobe.

In Alzheimer's disease (and other forms of dementia), the hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain to suffer damage; short-term memory loss and disorientation are included among the early symptoms. Damage to the hippocampus can also result from oxygen starvation (hypoxia), encephalitis, or medial temporal lobe epilepsy. People with extensive, bilateral hippocampal damage may experience [an] inability to form and retain new memories.

In rodents as model organisms, the hippocampus has been studied extensively as part of a brain system responsible for spatial memory and navigation. Many neurons in the rat and mouse hippocampus respond as place cells: that is, they fire bursts of action potentials when the animal passes through a specific part of its environment. Hippocampal place cells interact extensively with head direction cells, whose activity acts as an inertial compass, and conjecturally with grid cells in the neighboring entorhinal cortex.>>

[orin stepanek]

Very Nice! Kudos to the photographer!

[TheZuke!]

Today's APOD reminds me;
last week I first heard of "dark constellations" of the night skies in the Southern Hemisphere.
Some were associated with aboriginal peoples of Australia.
Does anyone have more information or links so I can learn more about them?
Thanks in Advance

[Bird_Man]

Here a link to an article “The Dark Constellations of the Incas”
https://futurism.com/the-dark-constella ... -the-incas
Hope this is helpful.