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A stunning “cosmic watercolor” features the interplay of light from hot young stars reflecting off clouds of gas and dust, 420 light-years from Earth.
This view of the region around the central star R Coronae Australis comes from the Wide Field Imager on the European Southern Observatory's MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope in Chile. The image spans a section of sky about as wide as the full moon, in the constellation Corona Australis (the Southern Crown). Hot young stars cast a bluish light that is reflected or re-emitted by the clouds of the star-forming nebula.
The dark patch in the lower left corner of the picture is actually a dense lane of interstellar dust. The dust completely obscures the stars within, when seen in visible wavelengths. But if the telescope were looking in the longer-wavelength infrared part of the spectrum, it would have spotted even more hidden gems. Here's a video that zooms in on the scene, and here's a near-infrared view of the region from the 2MASS sky survey.
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Absolutely fabulous!
Wonderful. The sense of depth present in the image is breathtaking.
These types of images really put our trivialities here on Earth into perspective.
There sure is a lot of interesting stuff in the southern celestial sky...I wonder if there are any metrics on this region in terms of new stars per year, estimates of star density (#/parsec), even an expected direction of travel (in the longterm)!!!...even some rough estimates could be helpful in understanding how many stars there are....even an estimate of tonnage of that obscurring dust would be an interesting enough to inspire someones grad thesis or such....with all the star nurseries uncovered in the last decade, it sure would be great if we could discern something that indicated the presence of life...funny how all the processes of life that we could detect are somehow also accountable as non-organic processes...like martian methane for example....if that dust has minute organisms and the dust is forming into stars, and undoubtably the starts of planets as well....hmmmm.
How do they know those bright spots are stars being born? Could the dust be clearing to reveal an old star behind it?
i believe they have seen enough stars in various stages of development, midlife and aging and have measured emitted variables such as light colors, temperatures, types of radiation in the various stages. each stage likely has unique characteristics and new stars can be identified with certainty.
i can tell you for sure they aren't just speculating or making it up.
Not saying that they are speculating, and I appreciate the response, but your reply said 'believe, likely, etc.' You are probably an armchair astronomer like I am. I was looking for definite/detailed info on how astonomers make these determinations...the actual indicators that a new star is forming.
couldn't tell from your response where you were coming from. you now have me interested in fleshing out my partially informed instincts. if i find a good link or two i'll share them. i suspect my hunches will play out but that's the fun in learning.
Ah...we're back to science. An absolutely beautiful photograph. I agree, it certainly puts our problems and our trivial existence into perpective. Did I read that correctly? Only 420 light years away? That's practically next door. Thanks Alan.
PEACE
This is a wonderful picture . Does anyone else see how there are several lines of stars in the background ?
Most of the stars are random , but there are several patterns , like one is following the other . --- RON ---
below is an excerpt from the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_formation which suggests "emitted variables" and "types of radiation" was in the ball park. thanks for the stimulation.
Key elements of star formation are only available by observing in wavelengths other than the optical. The protostellar stage of stellar existence is almost invariably hidden away deep inside dense clouds of gas and dust left over from the GMC. Often, these star-forming cocoons can be seen in silhouette against bright emission from surrounding gas; they are then known as Bok globules.[27] Early stages of a star's life can be seen in infrared light, which penetrates the dust more easily than visible light.[28]
The structure of the molecular cloud and the effects of the protostar can be observed in near-IR extinction maps (where the number of stars are counted per unit area and compared to a nearby zero extinction area of sky), continuum dust emission and rotational transitions of CO and other molecules; these last two are observed in the millimeter and submillimeter range. The radiation from the protostar and early star has to be observed in infrared astronomy wavelengths, as the extinction caused by the rest of the cloud in which the star is forming is usually too big to allow us to observe it in the visual part of the spectrum. This presents considerable difficulties as the atmosphere is almost entirely opaque from 20μm to 850μm, with narrow windows at 200μm and 450μm. Even outside this range atmospheric subtraction techniques must be used.
The formation of individual stars can only be directly observed in our Galaxy, but in distant galaxies star formation has been detected through its unique spectral signature.
Beautiful, certainly. And unimaginably violent as well.
Violence, aside, what is it about these images that make them so beautiful to us? Haven't we seen similar images in many abstract styles of painting and digitally manipulated photography and graphic art? Do these star cloud images convey something special, something unique to themselves? Perhaps the knowledge of the viewer that these aren't abstractions, they're real?