APOD: LDN 43: The Cosmic Bat Nebula (2024 Oct 27)

[APOD Robot]

LDN 43: The Cosmic Bat Nebula

Explanation: What is the most spook-tacular nebula in the galaxy? One contender is LDN 43, which bears an astonishing resemblance to a vast cosmic bat flying amongst the stars on a dark Halloween night. Located about 1400 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus, this molecular cloud is dense enough to block light not only from background stars, but from wisps of gas lit up by the nearby reflection nebula LBN 7. Far from being a harbinger of death, this 12-light year-long filament of gas and dust is actually a stellar nursery. Glowing with eerie light, the bat is lit up from inside by dense gaseous knots that have just formed young stars.

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[Ann]

Yes, the Cosmic Bat Nebula does look like Batman in flight, I'll grant you that.

LDN 43: The Cosmic Bat Nebula. Credit & Copyright: Mark Hanson and Mike Selby

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Batman in flight. Image credit: I don't know.

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The Cosmic Bat Nebula is also known as LDN 43. LDN means Lynd's Dark Nebula. And the Cosmic Bat sure is dark, just like Batman. But unlike Batman, the Cosmic Bat is a mom. The eerily glowing orange patches in the Cosmic Bat are sites of star formation and newborn stars.

Supermom! This Indian Flying Fox is giving her pup a lift. Credit: 360pixual

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Ann

[AVAO]

Yes, the Cosmic Bat Nebula does look like Batman in flight, I'll grant you that.

LDN 43: The Cosmic Bat Nebula. Credit & Copyright: Mark Hanson and Mike Selby

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Batman in flight. Image credit: I don't know.

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The Cosmic Bat Nebula is also known as LDN 43. LDN means Lynd's Dark Nebula. And the Cosmic Bat sure is dark, just like Batman. But unlike Batman, the Cosmic Bat is a mom. The eerily glowing orange patches in the Cosmic Bat are sites of star formation and newborn stars.

Supermom! This Indian Flying Fox is giving her pup a lift. Credit: 360pixual

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Ann

Well, it seems that the bat mon just caught a butterfly

Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

Original data: NASA/ESA (HST F814w) jac berne (flickr)

[Ann]

Well, it seems that the bat mon just caught a butterfly

Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

Original data: NASA/ESA (HST F814w) jac berne (flickr)

Fascinating, Jac! Is it a Blue Morpho?

Blue Morpho. Credit: animalshine.com

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Probably not though, because the only way the butterfly - make that the newborn star - could be blue is if it is massive, and personally I don't think that the Cosmic Bat itself looks massive enough to produce massive "offspring"!

Ann

[johnnydeep]

I guess the "butterfly" (or moth, or firefly) is really a part of LBN 7?

From the LBN 7 link in the text:

Click to view full size image

Scope: Explore Scientific MN152 Maksutov Newtonian at f/4.8, Location: DAA Observatory, Shelter Valley, CA, 19 December 2019, Camera: ST8300M (Baader LRGB filters)

Exposure: Exposure: 24 x 9 min (1x1 bin) exposure with UV/IR block filter, 10 x 4 min (2x2 bin) each RGB exposures.

Processing: Data Collection - Sequence Generator Pro (as FITs). Subframe calibration - Pixinsight. Subframe registration and integration (Median combine - Winsorized Sigma Clipping) - PixInsight. Non-linear stretching, normalization and gradient removal - PixInsight. Generation of starless nebulosity Luminance image for later processing - starnet++. Curves, Levels, RGB combine, Luminance layering - PixInsight. Stars and Starless Luminance combine - PixInsight. Final finishing - Photoshop. RGB calibration - eXcalibrator. Annotation - PixInsight, Aladin (Simbad and NED), and PhotoShop. This image is a RGB combine with Luminance layering. Images processed at 3352 x 2532 resolution. Final Image size is approximately 2800x2100.

North is up in this image. This image shows a region of interstellar material and dust illuminated by nearby stars as well as dark nebulae of dust blocking the light from background stars. The illuminated dust structure is LBN 7; the dark nebulae are Dobashi 74 and LDN 43. There are four parts to LDN 43 (plus S, D, and E). The annotated image doesn't indicate these four separately - just the overall structure. Within the LDN and LBN structure are two cometary nebulae GN 16.311.3 and GN 16.31.7. A cometary nebula is a descriptive term for these and similar nebulae since the nebula has the shape of a comet. There are several background galaxies in the image (6dF J1634296-152207, 6dF J1633551-153149, 2MFGC 13265, and others). These objects and some of the brighter stars are identified in the annotated image. Horizontal FOV is approximately 88 arc minutes. Full size image scale is 1.89 arcsec/pix.

Image center is approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 16h 35m 02s Dec: -15°47'09"