Starship Asterisk*

Star Forming Region S106

Explanation: Massive star IRS 4 is beginning to spread its wings. Born only about 100,000 years ago, material streaming out from this newborn star has formed the nebula dubbed Sharpless 2-106 Nebula (S106), featured here. A large disk of dust and gas orbiting Infrared Source 4 (IRS 4), visible in brown near the image center, gives the nebula an hourglass or butterfly shape. S106 gas near IRS 4 acts as an emission nebula as it emits light after being ionized, while dust far from IRS 4 reflects light from the central star and so acts as a reflection nebula. Detailed inspection of a relevant infrared image of S106 reveal hundreds of low-mass brown dwarf stars lurking in the nebula's gas. S106 spans about 2 light-years and lies about 2000 light-years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).

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EPIC!

You had the Random APOD Generator on a post a few days back and it’s such a great way to wander through the cosmos! I think you should add it as a standard button for the web page. Thanks for all you do!

This nebula, Sharpless-2 106, is known as the Snow Angel nebula. The picture at right shows the better known version of this nebula.

Ann

Ann wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 10:22 am

Star Forming Region S106 Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing & Copyright: Utkarsh Mishra

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Sharpless-2 106. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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This nebula, Sharpless-2 106, is known as the Snow Angel nebula. The picture at right shows the better known version of this nebula.

Ann

Both are Beautiful images Ann!

Panspermia? There don't seem to be any interstellar viruses, carrying diseases, or carrying seeds for planetary life. It is annoying that we have not (yet?) found even remnants of life on Mars; finding such would give us hints about how frequently life appears throughout the universe. The interstellar environment is just too toxic for life to be able to survive in space. Maybe.

Is there a particular reason a few of the stars have black dots at their centers? This is a beautiful region, both the APOD and Ann's addition.

I'm impressed by the Information about the calculated amount of brown dwarfs in the region.

NCTom wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 11:49 am Is there a particular reason a few of the stars have black dots at their centers?

This is a symptom of an overload on the image sensor because the star was so bright due to a long exposure. Ironically the overexposed area flips to black.

Eric

GeoXXX wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:11 pm

NCTom wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 11:49 am Is there a particular reason a few of the stars have black dots at their centers?

This is a symptom of an overload on the image sensor because the star was so bright due to a long exposure. Ironically the overexposed area flips to black.

Well, close. It's a processing error that is common when dealing with saturated pixels. The pixel value in the raw data is at its max, not set to zero.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:24 pm

GeoXXX wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:11 pm

NCTom wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 11:49 am Is there a particular reason a few of the stars have black dots at their centers?

This is a symptom of an overload on the image sensor because the star was so bright due to a long exposure. Ironically the overexposed area flips to black.

Well, close. It's a processing error that is common when dealing with saturated pixels. The pixel value in the raw data is at its max, not set to zero.

I was just going to say that I have never encountered "black holes" in saturated stars for HST data.

Looks like a giant torus. I know it's not.

Isn't there a contact binary nearby? pass me an ice cold one from Colorado; put it into your CD drive & mail it to me. ha! ha! ha!

It's just me? or today's image could seem erótica.

Sigmund F. wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 12:31 am
It's just me? or today's image could seem erótica.

• It's just you.

Looks like it's being sucked up through a very big straw. Can anyone else hear a deep "schlurrrrrrrp!!!" noise...?