Posted on 12/17/2024 12:14:07 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: What excites the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula on the upper left, catalogued as IC 1805, looks somewhat like a human heart. The nebula glows brightly in red light emitted by its most prominent element, hydrogen, but this long-exposure image was also blended with light emitted by sulfur (yellow) and oxygen (blue). In the center of the Heart Nebula are young stars from the open star cluster Melotte 15 that are eroding away several picturesque dust pillars with their atom-exciting energetic light and winds. The Heart Nebula is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia. This wide field image shows much more, though, including the Fishhead Nebula just below the Heart, a supernova remnant on the lower left, and three planetary nebulas on the image right. Taken over 57 nights, this image is so deep, though, that it clearly shows fainter long and complex filaments.
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.
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I can see these guys sitting around and saying, “Well, that looks sort of like a heart; and that one could possibly be a fish head; and that’ll do.”
Wow.
And this one looks like the Los Angeles freeway interchange.
LOL!
I guess it’s better than some forgettable alpha-numeric designation...
NGC 896: “Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up YUM!” :-)
You left out the ‘roly poly’ part...
Aiyeeee! You're absolutely right. Heh. :-)
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