Posted on 12/22/2020 2:49:40 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: Dust pillars are like interstellar mountains. They survive because they are more dense than their surroundings, but they are being slowly eroded away by a hostile environment. Visible in the featured picture is the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the Trifid Nebula (M20), punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual jet pointing to the left. Many of the dots are newly formed low-mass stars. A star near the small pillar's end is slowly being stripped of its accreting gas by radiation from a tremendously brighter star situated off the top of the image. The jet extends nearly a light-year and would not be visible without external illumination. As gas and dust evaporate from the pillars, the hidden stellar source of this jet will likely be uncovered, possibly over the next 20,000 years.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then zoom by moving the magnifying glass over an area and then clicking. The side bars will move the zoomed area over the photograph.
Yes, I do note the different spelling.
No one noted that galactic RPG shooting past in the left side of the image?
Are these photo’s copyrighted? Would I be able to use them on Youtube to illustrate my homemade video?
I don’t know if the photos are copyrighted.
I think government photos are owned by the taxpayers.
I think government photos are owned by the taxpayers.
Mountain Climber! Thanks for this beautiful window on the universe, and the opportunity to display to the world our disordered inner roshak projections!
D.S.
“No one noted that galactic RPG shooting past in the left side of the image?”
I thought that was either Virgin Mary on a pedestal (See today’s reading in Luke, Psalm of Mary, the Magnificat) or the Zigzag man.
Humm. Definitely Mary on reflection.
(Chubby Sand worms on the bottom wriggling around looking for spice!)
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