Post
by kovil » Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:16 am
<<... how do I put it ... the movement in the glowing areas. As an artist, I'm just wondering about the sort of paths of movement that the image shows. Is that sort of pattern of movement really there? Very interesting! >>
Hi, Yes, the movement is really there, but it is ever so slow in our time span. A decade from now it would be hard to see a difference, we live such short lives.
No, the movement is not there, as the streaking like an artists brush strokes, is not necessarily the direction of movement of the particles reflecting the starlight.
It's a yes and no, depending on how you mean your words.
The span of the brush strokes is 2 - 3 light years across or long, our solar system is measured in light hours to Pluto. These are very large structures, and so very slow to move or change, as their velocities are definately sub-light speed by quite a bit.
The kind of particles there, effect what frequencies are absorbed and reflected or reemitted, of the starlight. (thanks Gordhaddow)
As solar winds push the gasses and dusts they balloon and that can make the strech marks like brush strokes. Or it may be an artifact of the angle of the starlight, like when looking at a sunset the lines point toward the setting sun for each observer, no matter where they are looking from.
Sometimes magnetic fields will make brushstroke lines in photos.
Have a look at some of the 'galactic center radio arc' photos from Spitzer space telescope, maybe on the Spitzer.com site, I sort of forget where, but they were most spectacular of our Milky Way Galaxy central core !
Maybe on APOD, you might remember them.
There is a huge 13 light year radius magnetic field centered on the supermassive gravity-anomily at our galactic core.
That's where I want to go for my summer vaction this year ! for study.
I've seen images of the Peiades before, but am wondering about the sort of ... how do I put it ... the movement in the glowing areas. As an artist, I'm just wondering about the sort of paths of movement that the image shows. Is that sort of pattern of movement really there? Very interesting!