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The Pleiades M45 with Majestic Dust
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Créé pour l'OAE
Légende : Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.
Taken in Dar Eid in Saint Catherine/Sinai, Egypt, in October 2021, this image shows the Pleiades, an open cluster also known as The Seven Sisters.
The Pleiades are located in the north-western part of the constellation Taurus, the Bull. This constellation originates from ancient Babylonian or even Sumerian belief, where it was designated the Bull of Heaven, a mighty creature owned by the sky god. In Late Babylonian times, the Pleiades were called The Bristle at the hunchback of The Bull. In China, the asterism is also called The Hair, but this does not necessarily imply any relationship between the East Asian and West Asian names of this asterism, although exchange is hypothesised with the establishment of the Silk Road.
In ancient Babylonian texts the term The Hair does not appear. Instead, the Pleiades are only called The Star Cluster in Sumerian, and the Sumerian term was used in later languages as a loanword. The Sumerian and early Babylonian religion associated all constellations with specific deities, including gods, demons, messengers of gods. The Star Cluster was associated with a deity of the Netherworld that was called The Seven and was considered an ensemble of seven speaking weapons or strongly armed gods. The later Greek name of the Seven Sisters might possibly have sprung from an intercultural misunderstanding of this older religious association, since, in fact, seven stars are not seen in this cluster.
The star cluster of the Pleiades is really prominent in the sky, and thus was used for several cultural purposes, such as determining the calendar and the spring equinox. However, its significance is frequently overstated in cultural astronomy. As the tradition of representing it with seven dots originates from an ancient Sumerian belief, we should be careful about interpreting any group of seven dots on cave walls and archaeological sites across Europe, Asia and America from the Stone Age onwards as a representation of the Pleiades.
Modern astrophysics has found that the star cluster of the Pleiades is extraordinarily young, so there was certainly not an additional star in ancient times. Furthermore, we know that the bright stars are only the core region of an open star cluster that consists of hundreds of stars scattered over an area of the sky which exceeds the bright core by one or two of its diameters in any direction. The photograph does not even show the whole cluster. The group is thought to be about 400 light-years away from Earth, which is relatively close in astronomical terms.
Crédit : Mohamed Usama/IAU OAE
Termes du glossaire:
Amas , Objet Messier , Nuage de poussière , Nuage de gaz , Milieu interstellaire , Amas ouvert , Pléiades
Catégories :
Voie lactée et milieu interstellaire
, Astronomie à l'œil nu
, Étoiles
Licence : Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Icônes
Ce fichier est sur Zenodo ( image 5.83 MB)
The Horsehead Nebula
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Légende : This image shows the Horsehead Nebula, located at a distance of about 1,300 light-years from Earth in the Orion constellation, one of the most iconic examples of a dark nebula. A dark nebula is a dense cloud of interstellar dust and cold gas that absorbs and scatters visible light, preventing background stars and glowing gas from reaching our eyes. This false-color image combines data captured through multiple narrowband filters, each isolating light from different elements in the nebula. The dark, horse-shaped silhouette appears sharply outlined against the luminous nebula behind it, where energetic radiation from nearby young stars causes the gas to glow. The uneven distribution of visible stars in this image is not random: regions rich in dust in the lower part of this image appear almost empty, while clearer areas reveal many background stars. The dust acts like a cosmic curtain, hiding stars that lie behind it while allowing stars in front of the cloud to remain visible. Studying such regions helps astronomers understand how nebulae serve as environments where new stars can form.
Crédit : T.A.Rector (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA)
Lien du crédit
Termes du glossaire:
Nébuleuse sombre , Poussière , Nébuleuse , L'espace
Licence : Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Icônes
Fichier
( image
23.89 MB)
The LDN 483 Dark Nebula
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Légende : This image shows a dark molecular cloud known as LDN 483, captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. At first glance, the patch of sky looks like a region where stars are missing, but the effect is due to interstellar extinction — dust and gas within LDN 483 absorb and scatter light from background stars, making them appear faint or invisible to telescopes that observe visible light. Interstellar extinction is the dimming of light from distant objects caused by dust and gas between the object and the observer, a common phenomenon in astronomy that must be accounted for when measuring stellar brightness and color.
Dark nebulae like LDN 483 are dense concentrations of interstellar matter located within our Milky Way Galaxy. This particular cloud lies about 700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens and contains enough material to block most visible light from stars behind it. Because dust grains preferentially scatter shorter (bluer) wavelengths of light, extinction can also make objects appear redder than they truly are — a related effect known as interstellar reddening. Understanding and correcting for extinction is essential for astronomers to reveal the true brightness, distance, and physical properties of celestial objects seen through dusty regions of space.
Crédit : ESO
Lien du crédit
Termes du glossaire:
Nébuleuse sombre , Milieu interstellaire , L'extinction interstellaire
Licence : Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Icônes
Fichier
( image
31.01 MB)
Dust Clouds and Nebulae near R Coronae Australis
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Légende : The image shows a dark and dusty cloud and some bright reflection nebulae near the binary star R Coronae Australis. The dark cloud spans several light-years and is located in the constellation Corona Australis near the constellation Sagittarius, in the direction of the Milky Way's center. The cloud appears to swallow the light of distant stars behind it as the dust particles in it scatter light passing through in all directions. This gives it the appearance of a void in the sky. This dark nebula is part of the broader Corona Australis Molecular Clouds. R Coronae Australis forms part of the Coronet Cluster, a collection of young stars which formed at some point in the last two million years.
Around R Coronae Australis in the center of the image is the small reflection nebula NGC 6729 with two blueish reflection nebulae NGC 6726 and NGC 6727 lying to the upper right of it. In these nebulae the dust scatters light from bright stars near the nebula towards an observer on Earth, making it glow in this image.
Crédit : ESO
Lien du crédit
Termes du glossaire:
Nébuleuse sombre , Poussière , Nébuleuse , Milieu interstellaire , L'extinction interstellaire , Nuage moléculaire
Catégories :
Voie lactée et milieu interstellaire
Licence : Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Icônes
Fichier
( image
20.18 MB)
Herschel’s view of new stars and molecular clouds
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Légende : This image shows the Westerhout 3, 4 and 5 star formation regions. This area has huge amounts of gas and dust. This gas and dust hides the physical processes going on in this region from studies using visible light. This image was taken in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory. This infrared light allowed Herschel to see deep into these star forming regions.
In Westerhout 3, 4 and 5, huge, cold clouds of molecular hydrogen have collapsed into dense knots and filaments. Within these new structures the gas is dense and cold enough for it to collapse and form stars. These new stars give off powerful winds of charged particles, like stronger versions of the solar wind our sun gives off. These winds have combined to blow massive bubbles in the surrounding gas and dust. These are visible as the large darker voids in the image.
Crédit : ESA/Herschel/NASA/JPL-Caltech; acknowledgement: R. Hurt (JPL-Caltech)
Lien du crédit
Termes du glossaire:
Astronomie infrarouge , Formation des étoiles , Milieu interstellaire , Nuage moléculaire , Vent stellaire
Catégories :
Voie lactée et milieu interstellaire
, Étoiles
Licence : Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 3.0 Organisations Internationales Creative Commons (CC) Attribution 3.0 Organisations Internationales Icônes
Fichier
( image
4.53 MB)
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