Explanation: It's stars versus dust in the Carina Nebula and the stars are winning. More precisely, the energetic light and winds from massive newly formed stars are evaporating and dispersing the dusty stellar nurseries in which they formed. Located in the Carina Nebula and known informally as Mystic Mountain, these pillar's appearance is dominated by the dark dust even though it is composed mostly of clear hydrogen gas. Dust pillars such as these are actually much thinner than air and only appear as mountains due to relatively small amounts of opaque interstellar dust. About 7,500 light-years distant, the featured image was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope and highlights an interior region of Carina which spans about three light years. Within a few million years, the stars will likely win out completely and the entire dust mountain will evaporate.
Wouldn't it be fun to see the "topmost pillar" spinning like a top because of the star with twin jets embedded inside it?
Ann
Re: APOD: Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula (2022 Aug 01)
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:31 am
by Locutus76
Ann wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 5:20 am
Wouldn't it be fun to see the "topmost pillar" spinning like a top because of the star with twin jets embedded inside it?
Ann
A kind of interstellar lighthouse perhaps
Re: APOD: Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula (2022 Aug 01)
Wouldn't it be fun to see the "topmost pillar" spinning like a top because of the star with twin jets embedded inside it? :D
Ann
We'd see a cool looking spiral of the dust if that was the case. (Although in reality I don't think those are jets.)
Re: APOD: Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula (2022 Aug 01)
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 3:03 pm
by orin stepanek
Always beautiful! Kind of like fog; you can see what is near; but a
block away is completely blind!
Reaching for the stars
Re: APOD: Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula (2022 Aug 01)
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:46 pm
by heehaw
A VERY attractive photo: of a bunch of dust.
Re: APOD: Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula (2022 Aug 01)
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 11:47 pm
by VictorBorun
Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 1:50 pm
(Although in reality I don't think those are jets.)
A Herbig–Haro object is thought to be a pair of jets from a proto-star.
It lasts not millions of years but mere thousands.
It does not spin; the jets are perpendicular to the hot plasma disk that forms around the proto-star and with its differential rotation creates the orbital electric currents, with magnetic field lines roughly perpendicular to the disk to guide the jets out of the plane of the disk
Re: APOD: Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula (2022 Aug 01)
Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 1:50 pm
(Although in reality I don't think those are jets.)
A Herbig–Haro object is thought to be a pair of jets from a proto-star.
It lasts not millions of years but mere thousands.
It does not spin; the jets are perpendicular to the hot plasma disk that forms around the proto-star and with its differential rotation creates the orbital electric currents, with magnetic field lines roughly perpendicular to the disk to guide the jets out of the plane of the disk
They look to me more like EGGs, but I haven't made any close study of it.
Re: APOD: Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula (2022 Aug 01)
Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 1:50 pm
(Although in reality I don't think those are jets.)
A Herbig–Haro object is thought to be a pair of jets from a proto-star.
It lasts not millions of years but mere thousands.
It does not spin; the jets are perpendicular to the hot plasma disk that forms around the proto-star and with its differential rotation creates the orbital electric currents, with magnetic field lines roughly perpendicular to the disk to guide the jets out of the plane of the disk
They look to me more like EGGs, but I haven't made any close study of it.
why not both, a pair of jets from a proto-star, now evaporating gas globule?
Re: APOD: Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula (2022 Aug 01)
A Herbig–Haro object is thought to be a pair of jets from a proto-star.
It lasts not millions of years but mere thousands.
It does not spin; the jets are perpendicular to the hot plasma disk that forms around the proto-star and with its differential rotation creates the orbital electric currents, with magnetic field lines roughly perpendicular to the disk to guide the jets out of the plane of the disk
They look to me more like EGGs, but I haven't made any close study of it.
why not both, a pair of jets from a proto-star, now evaporating gas globule?
Well, if they are EGGs, it's two stars ejected from the dust pillar. If it's a protostar with jets, it's one object inside the pillar.
Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula
