Starship Asterisk*

Stars Versus Dust in the Carina Nebula

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 inside a region known informally as Mystic Mountain, these pillars' appearance is dominated by opaque brown dust even though it is composed mostly of clear hydrogen gas. Even though some of the dust pillars look like torches, their ends are not on fire -- rather, they are illuminated by nearby stars. About 7,500 light-years distant, the featured image was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope and highlights an interior region of Carina known as HH1066 which spans nearly a light year. Within a few million years, the stars will likely win out completely and the dust torches will completely evaporate.

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That's confusing!

APOD Robot wrote:

Located in the Carina Nebula and inside a region known informally as Mystic Mountain

I was wondering if today's APOD might be showing a jet, since the formations are so broken up. The jets in Mystic Mountain are gorgeous, by the way!

But the formations in today's APOD don't look like bits of a jet to me, because I can't see anything resembling a bow shock. They look more like pillars in projection.


I wonder if there might just be a tiny low-mass star buried near the top of one of the smaller pillars.


Well, interesting!

Ann

Ann wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 6:11 am That's confusing!

APOD Robot wrote:

Located in the Carina Nebula and inside a region known informally as Mystic Mountain

Where do these things...

---

...fit in here?

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The thin vertical wisp that exits the top of the frame of today's APOD enters the bottom of the frame of the Mystic Mountain linked image a little to the right of center. Today's APOD appears at about the 2 to 3 o'clock position halfway between center and edge of the frame in the "Carina Nebula" linked image, reversed and rotated.

Hello, usually when photographing stars in deep space, there "spikes" around the stars, which I know are artifacts of crossbeams (or whatever) of the telescope or camera. However, today's picture displays smooth disks for stars. What prevents the "spikes" here?

Thwack wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 2:32 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 6:11 am That's confusing!

APOD Robot wrote:

Located in the Carina Nebula and inside a region known informally as Mystic Mountain

Where do these things...

---

...fit in here?

---

The thin vertical wisp that exits the top of the frame of today's APOD enters the bottom of the frame of the Mystic Mountain linked image a little to the right of center. Today's APOD appears at about the 2 to 3 o'clock position halfway between center and edge of the frame in the "Carina Nebula" linked image, reversed and rotated.

Sometimes - in fact, almost always - a picture helps:

Flyboy1331 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 2:44 pm Hello, usually when photographing stars in deep space, there "spikes" around the stars, which I know are artifacts of crossbeams (or whatever) of the telescope or camera. However, today's picture displays smooth disks for stars. What prevents the "spikes" here?

They are erased in the laboratories

Skipping over the hydrogen component, how large are the "dust particles" in such a cloud, as in a size range?
Can they be as large as the rocks/dustballs/iceballs/composites out in the Oort cloud or Kuiper belt that occasionally become comets?
Chuck Almdale
webinfo493@verizon.net

CHUKAR wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 7:37 pm Skipping over the hydrogen component, how large are the "dust particles" in such a cloud, as in a size range?
Can they be as large as the rocks/dustballs/iceballs/composites out in the Oort cloud or Kuiper belt that occasionally become comets?
Chuck Almdale
webinfo493@verizon.net

No, this really is dust as we intuit the word. It ranges from molecular to a few micrometers.

Ann wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 6:11 am
... The jets in Mystic Mountain are gorgeous, by the way! ...

Ann

"Spooky neighborhood - but I like this too

bigger https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/533 ... ab51_o.jpg
jac berne (flickr)
jac berne (flickr)