Mystic Mountain

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Mystic Mountain HH 901 and HH 902 in the Carina nebula (captured by the Hubble Space Telescope).jpg
Mystic Mountain
The location of the feature can be seen in this wider view of the Carina Nebula. Dark Clouds of the Carina Nebula.jpg
The location of the feature can be seen in this wider view of the Carina Nebula.

Mystic Mountain is a photograph and a term for a region in the Carina Nebula imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The view was captured by the then-new Wide Field Camera 3, though the region was also viewed by the previous generation instrument. The new view celebrated the telescope's 20th anniversary of being in space in 2010. [1] Mystic Mountain contains multiple Herbig–Haro objects where nascent stars are firing off jets of gas which interact with surrounding clouds of gas and dust. [2] [3] This region is about 7,500 light-years (2,300 parsecs ) away from Earth. The pillar measures around three light-years in height (190,000 astronomical units ). [1] The name was influenced by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. [4]

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A planetary nebula is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orion Nebula</span> Diffuse nebula in the constellation Orion

The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion, and is known as the middle "star" in the "sword" of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with apparent magnitude 4.0. It is 1,344 ± 20 light-years (412.1 ± 6.1 pc) away and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light-years across. It has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boomerang Nebula</span> Protoplanetary nebula in the constellation Centaurus

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trifid Nebula</span> Emission nebula in the constellation Sagittarius

The Trifid Nebula is an H II region in the north-west of Sagittarius in a star-forming region in the Milky Way's Scutum–Centaurus Arm. It was discovered by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764. Its name means 'three-lobe'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, and a dark nebula. Viewed through a small telescope, the Trifid Nebula is a bright and peculiar object, and is thus a perennial favorite of amateur astronomers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proplyd</span> Dust ring surrounding large stars thousands of solar radii wide

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eagle Nebula</span> Open cluster in the constellation Serpens

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elephant's Trunk Nebula</span> Nebula in the constellation Cepheus

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth. The piece of the nebula shown here is the dark, dense globule IC 1396A; it is commonly called the Elephant's Trunk nebula because of its appearance at visible light wavelengths, where there is a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive star that is just to the east of IC 1396A. The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star, except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet rays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 7027</span> Planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus

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The Hubble Heritage Project was founded in 1998 by Keith Noll, Howard Bond, Forrest Hamilton, Anne Kinney, and Zoltan Levay at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Until its end in 2016, the Hubble Heritage Project released, on an almost monthly basis, pictures of celestial objects like planets, stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 3532</span> Open cluster in the constellation Carina

NGC 3532, also commonly known as the Pincushion Cluster, Football Cluster, the Black Arrow Cluster, or the Wishing Well Cluster, is an open cluster some 405 parsecs from Earth in the constellation Carina. Its population of approximately 150 stars of 7th magnitude or fainter includes seven red giants and seven white dwarfs. On 20 May 1990 it became the first target ever observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. A line from Beta Crucis through Delta Crucis passes somewhat to the north of NGC 3532. The cluster lies between the constellation Crux and the larger but fainter "False Cross" asterism. The 4th-magnitude Cepheid variable star x Carinae appears near the southeast fringes, but it lies between the Sun and the cluster and is not a member of the cluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 2174</span> Emission nebula in the constellation Orion

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<i>Pillars of Creation</i> Astrophotograph by the Hubble Space Telescope

Pillars of Creation is a photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of elephant trunks of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, in the Serpens constellation, some 6,500–7,000 light-years from Earth. These elephant trunks had been discovered by John Charles Duncan in 1920 on a plate made with the Mount Wilson Observatory 60-inch telescope. They are so named because the gas and dust are in the process of creating new stars, while also being eroded by the light from nearby stars that have recently formed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Crab Nebula</span> Planetary nebula in the constellation Centaurus

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wide Field Camera 3</span> Astronomical camera on the Hubble Space Telescope

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mayall's Object</span> Two colliding galaxies in the constellation of Ursa Major

Mayall's Object is the result of two colliding galaxies located 500 million light years away within the constellation of Ursa Major. It was discovered by American astronomer Nicholas U. Mayall of the Lick Observatory on 13 March 1940, using the Crossley reflector. When first discovered, Mayall's Object was described as a peculiar nebula, shaped like a question mark. Originally theorized to represent a galaxy reacting with the intergalactic medium, it is now thought to represent the collision of two galaxies, resulting in a new object consisting of a ring-shaped galaxy with a tail emerging from it. It is thought that the collision between the two galaxies created a shockwave that initially drew matter into the center which then formed the ring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 2936</span> Interacting spiral galaxy in the constellation Hydra

NGC 2936 is an interacting spiral galaxy located at a distance of 326 million light years, in the constellation Hydra. NGC 2936 is interacting with elliptical galaxy NGC 2937, located just beneath it. They were both discovered by Albert Marth on Mar 3, 1864. To some astronomers, the galaxy looks like a penguin or a porpoise. NGC 2936, NGC 2937, and PGC 1237172 are included in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 142 in the category "Galaxy triplet".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubble Legacy Field</span> Image by Hubble Space Telescope of a small region of space containing ~265,000 galaxies

The Hubble Legacy Field is an image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax, containing an estimated 265,000 galaxies. The original release was composed of Hubble Space Telescope data accumulated over a 16-year period. Looking back approximately 13 billion years it has been used to search for galaxies that existed at that time. The image was taken in a section of the sky with a low density of bright stars in the near-field, allowing much better viewing of dimmer, more distant objects. It builds on the data collected for the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey.

References

  1. 1 2 Achenbach, Joel (16 April 2015). "Mystic Mountain: Is this the Hubble Space Telescope's greatest image?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 19 March 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  2. "Interactive: The Carina Nebula in all its Glory..." The Hubble Heritage Project. 24 April 2007. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  3. "Starry-Eyed Hubble Celebrates 20 Years of Awe and Discovery". Hubblesite.org. 22 April 2010. Archived from the original on 9 December 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  4. Sheehan, William; Conselice, Christopher J. (2015). "What Stuff Stars Are Made Of". Galactic Encounters: Our Majestic and Evolving Star-System, From the Big Bang to Time's End. New York: Springer. p. 166. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-85347-5_8. ISBN   978-0-387-85347-5.

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