Posted on 12/26/2022 11:09:30 AM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: The star at the center created everything. Known as the Dragon's Egg, this star -- a rare, hot, luminous O-type star some 40 times as massive as the Sun -- created not only the complex nebula (NGC 6164) that immediately surrounds it, but also the encompassing blue halo. Its name is derived, in part, from the region's proximity to the picturesque NGC 6188, known as the fighting Dragons of Ara. In another three to four million years the massive star will likely end its life in a supernova explosion. Spanning around 4 light-years, the nebula itself has a bipolar symmetry making it similar in appearance to more common planetary nebulae - the gaseous shrouds surrounding dying sun-like stars. Also like many planetary nebulae, NGC 6164 has been found to have an extensive, faint halo, revealed in blue in this deep telescopic image of the region. Expanding into the surrounding interstellar medium, the material in the blue halo was likely expelled from an earlier active phase of the O-star. NGC 6164 lies 4,200 light-years away in the southern constellation of the Carpenter's Square (Norma).
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
That's not a 'dragon'...................
bttt
Croman has a wonderful site of pictures. Click on the link within the description.
amazing
The vastness and complexities of space amazes me. I recently bought a little 70 x 900mm telescope to see near planets and moons.
Sometimes I get off on a tangent and think, wow, the globull warming cult finally gets its way and in the year 2222 there is no longer anything making a carbon footprint on planet earth except the 500k humans allowed to live until the massive asteroid plows into it with its final carbon deposit wiping out all life on the planet for a number of years while it starts all over again. A true great reset.
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