Astronomy Picture of the Day - Melotte 15 in the Heart Nebula

NASA ^ | 17 Sep, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Richard McInnis

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Cosmic clouds form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. The clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula's newborn star cluster, Melotte 15. About 1.5 million years young, the cluster stars are scattered in this colorful skyscape, along with dark dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas. A composite of narrowband and broadband telescopic images, the view spans about 15 light-years and includes emission from ionized hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms mapped to green, red, and blue hues in the popular Hubble Palette. Wider field images reveal that IC 1805's simpler, overall outline suggests its popular name - the Heart Nebula. IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia.

[MtnClimber]

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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.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[Magnum44]

Any relation?

[ComputerGuy]

That is one ugly mess. Cool pic, though.

[MtnClimber]

That is one ugly mess.

Cleanup on aisle 16.

[DannyTN]

I don’t see a heart.

I see poop im the stream.

[telescope115]

What’s difficult sometimes, is just trying to seesomething sometimes without benefit of a photograph, like Mel 15. On a star chart, it can be clearly marked, but thru a telescope and eyepiece one really has to study the star field to see the cluster. It’s like that with some starclusters.

That’s part of what makes looking through a telescope so enjoyable; the thrill of the hunt, and the thrill of discovery. The nebula is pretty, but for me it’s about the hunt and the satisfaction of finding that object that’s plotted so clearly on a star chart. The symbols on charts can be misleading. They are generic.

[minnesota_bound]

These nebula’s are staggering big. Stars are tiny bits inside them. Now where did the nebula’s come from?
Stars came after the nebula’s before the big ones start exploding and spreading elements around.

[AFB-XYZ]

Akhenaton in the middle, doing a pretty good Moon Walk. Michael Jackson is spinning in his grave from jealousy.

And that’s one of my more “normal” interpretations. Heh.

[Deaf and Discerning]

[telescope115]

That is super cute! Looks just like our cat Coco!

[Larry Lucido]

Close-up of the Heart Nebula.

[rfp1234]

Is that Tim Allen in the clip?

[Magnum44]

Yes

[NetAddicted]

Yep, looks like clouds. Interesting.