Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On March 2, 2011 @ 5:56 pm In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
[1]
NGC 1499: The California Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Markus Noller [2] (Deep Sky Images [3])
Explanation: What’s California doing in space? Drifting through the Orion Arm of the spiral Milky Way Galaxy, this cosmic cloud [4] by chance echoes the outline of California [5] on the west coast of the United States [6]. Our own Sun also lies within the Milky Way’s Orion Arm [7], only about 1,500 light-years from the California Nebula [8]. Also known as NGC 1499 [9], the classic emission nebula is around 100 light-year [10]s long. On many images, the most prominent glow of the California Nebula is the red light characteristic of hydrogen [11] atoms recombining with long lost [12] electrons, stripped away (ionized [13]) by energetic starlight. In the above image [14], however, hydrogen is colored green, while sulfur is mapped [15] to red and oxygen mapped to blue. The star most likely providing the energetic starlight that ionizes much of the nebular gas is the bright, hot, bluish Xi Persei [16], just outside the right image edge. A regular target for astrophotographers, the California Nebula can be spotted [17] with a wide-field telescope under a dark sky toward the constellation of Perseus [18], not far from the Pleiades [19].
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/2011/03/02/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-23/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/california_noller_.jpg
[2] Markus Noller: mailto:%20markus-noller%20@at@%20gmx%20.dot.%20de
[3] Deep Sky Images: http://www.deep-sky-images.de/
[4] this cosmic cloud: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/nebulae/ngc1499.html
[5] California: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California
[6] United States: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
[7] Orion Arm: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/5000lys.html
[8] California Nebula: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Nebula
[9] NGC 1499: http://www.seds.org/~spider/spider/Misc/n1499.html
[10] light-year: http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question19.html
[11] hydrogen: http://periodic.lanl.gov/1.shtml
[12] long lost: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/lament.html
[13] ionized: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/light/ionization.html
[14] above image: http://www.deep-sky-images.de/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pid=239#top_display_media
[15] mapped: http://bf-astro.com/hubbleP.htm
[16] Xi Persei: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Persei
[17] can be spotted: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090411.html
[18] Perseus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus_%28constellation%29
[19] Pleiades: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091103.html
[20] Astronomy Pictures of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
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