Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On February 22, 2011 @ 10:18 pm In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
[1]
The Heart and Soul Nebulas
Credit: Digitized Sky Survey [2], ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator [3];
Color Composite: Davide De Martin (Skyfactory [4])
Explanation: Is the heart and soul of our Galaxy located in Cassiopeia [5]? Possibly not, but that is where two bright emission nebulas [6] nicknamed Heart and Soul can be found. The Heart Nebula [7], officially dubbed IC 1805 [8] and visible in the above [9] zoomable view on the right, has a shape reminiscent of a classical heart symbol [10]. Both nebulas shine brightly in the red light of energized [11] hydrogen [12]. Several young open clusters [13] of stars populate the image and are visible above [9] in blue, including the nebula centers. Light [14] takes about 6,000 years to reach us from these nebulas, which together span roughly 300 light years [15]. Studies [16] of stars and clusters like those found in the Heart [17] and Soul [18] Nebulas have focussed on how massive stars [19] form and how they affect their environment.
Visit the NASA/JPL website to view more Astronomy Pictures of the Day [20]
Article printed from Recorder Online: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com
URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/02/22/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-18/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/heart_and_soul_nebula.jpg
[2] Digitized Sky Survey: http://www-gsss.stsci.edu/Acknowledgements/DataCopyrights.htm
[3] FITS Liberator: http://www.spacetelescope.org/projects/fits_liberator/
[4] Skyfactory: http://www.skyfactory.org/
[5] Cassiopeia: http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/cas/
[6] emission nebulas: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/emission_nebulae.html
[7] Heart Nebula: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061003.html
[8] IC 1805: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/A_FALL/IC1805.HTM
[9] visible in the above: http://www.skyfactory.org/ic1805-1848/ic1805-1848.htm
[10] heart symbol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_(symbol)
[11] energized: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030410.html
[12] hydrogen: http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/1.html
[13] open clusters: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/open_clusters.html
[14] Light: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html
[15] light years: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html
[16] Studies: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1999A%26AS..136..313S
[17] Heart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Nebula
[18] Soul: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Nebula
[19] massive stars: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030622.html
[20] Astronomy Pictures of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
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