Astronomy Picture for Today

nasa ^ | 03/01/2006 | DG

[HOTTIEBOY]

The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi
Credit: Adam Block (KPNO Visitor Program), NOAO, AURA, NSF>

The many spectacular colors of the Rho Ophiuchi (oh'-fee-yu-kee) clouds highlight the many processes that occur there. The blue regions shine primarily by reflected light. Blue light from the star Rho Ophiuchi and nearby stars reflects more efficiently off this portion of the nebula than red light. The Earth's daytime sky appears blue for the same reason. The red and yellow regions shine primarily because of emission from the nebula's atomic and molecular gas. Light from nearby blue stars - more energetic than the bright star Antares - knocks electrons away from the gas, which then shines when the electrons recombine with the gas. The dark regions are caused by dust grains - born in young stellar atmospheres - which effectively block light emitted behind them. The Rho Ophiuchi star clouds, well in front of the globular cluster M4 visible above on far lower left, are even more colorful than humans can see - the clouds emits light in every wavelength band from the radio to the gamma-ray.

[HOTTIEBOY]

Want an idea of how big these things are?

At the far lower left, the bright object is a starcluster in the foreground!

[HOTTIEBOY]

ping

[BigFinn]

Awesome.

[meanie monster]

thanks hottieboy!

[The_Victor]

Just to the right of center in the pic - that looks like a face or skull. Is it proof of the existence of an alien civilization or Satan?

[SF Republican]

Its Jesus, sell it on EBay!

[queenkathy]

kinda looks like the pic of my daughter's ultrasound of her 12 week baby...

[conservativebabe]

I do that same thing with the wallpaper in my bathroom.

[The_Victor]

Its Jesus, sell it on EBay!

You may be on to something. But instead of selling it we need to convince the same people who see Jesus and/or Mary in every water stain that we have to get there somehow to see Jesus. That'll get the space program rolling....

[sit-rep]

Gotta question...

These pics you post, showing the illuminated gases, if there was a planet in the interior of the gaseous region...judging by the size of the clouds in some pics, a vast area in space is consumed, would a planet be able to have an atmosphere if the said planet was in this cloud?? I do not know if the question is possible to answer, but if it is, and there are other planets with atmospheres(regardless of the make up) could it be they maintain stability with this surrounding element creating the glow??

[Kaylee Frye]

So beautiful - thanks for the ping!

[HOTTIEBOY]

It wouldn't be possible for a planet to form. Its too hot. Not even a gas giant could survive.

[HOTTIEBOY]

Don't mention it.

[sit-rep]

Hmmmm... Well I guess that's that.

Thanks for the info...

[HOTTIEBOY]

Your Welcome Meanie

[RightWhale]

The density of the gas/dust cloud is very low. It would be considered a fairly good vacuum; however, it would interact with the outer atmosphere of a planet, say, above 50 miles, and probably make the atmosphere unfavorable for the rise of life on the planet.

[sit-rep]

I was just envidioning what it must be like to live near, or in something like that. At night, walk out on the back deck and see this close up...be kinda cool wouldn't it?

[sit-rep]

envisioning

[RightWhale]

see this close up

From close up it would be less than interesting, just a faint haze in the sky everywhere. Especially, little color: these astronomy images are all processed and colors are kind of unreal. Look at the Andromeda Galaxy: it's just a patch of fog, a cotton ball for color. That's what most all of this stuff actually looks like.

[phantomworker]

Beautiful star clusters! Pretty colors!