{"id":9765,"date":"2015-01-28T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9765"},"modified":"2015-01-27T02:31:52","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T07:31:52","slug":"eso-the-mouth-of-the-beast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9765","title":{"rendered":"ESO: The Mouth of the Beast"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0ESO<\/a>\u00a0(European Southern Observatory) posts the latest finding:<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Mouth of the Beast<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"VLT<\/a><\/p>\n

Like the gaping mouth of a gigantic celestial creature, the cometary globule CG4<\/a> glows menacingly in this image from ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope. Although it looks huge and bright in this image it is actually a faint nebula and not easy to observe. The exact nature of CG4 remains a mystery. \u00a0Credit:\u00a0ESO<\/em><\/p>\n

Like the gaping mouth of a gigantic celestial creature, the cometary globule CG4 glows menacingly in this new image from ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope. Although it appears to be big and bright in this picture, this is actually a faint nebula, which makes it very hard for amateur astronomers to spot. The exact nature of CG4 remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

In 1976 several elongated comet-like objects were discovered on pictures taken with the UK Schmidt Telescope in Australia. Because of their appearance, they became known as cometary globules even though they have nothing in common with comets. They were all located in a huge patch of glowing gas called the Gum Nebula<\/a>. They had dense, dark, dusty heads and long, faint tails, which were generally pointing away from the Vela supernova remnant<\/a> located at the centre of the Gum Nebula. Although these objects are relatively close by, it took astronomers a long time to find them as they glow very dimly and are therefore hard to detect.<\/p>\n

The object shown in this new picture, CG4<\/a>, which is also sometimes referred to as God\u2019s Hand, is one of these cometary globules. It is located about 1300 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Puppis<\/a> (The Poop, or Stern).<\/p>\n

http:\/\/media.eso.org\/public\/archives\/videos\/hd_1080p25_screen\/eso1503a.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

This zoom video sequence goes from a wide view of the southern Milky Way deep into the constellation of Puppis close to the site of the Vela supernova remnant. The final view shows a new close-up view of the cometary globule CG4. It glows menacingly, like the gaping mouth of a gigantic celestial creature, in this this new image from ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope. What looks huge and bright in this image is actually a faint nebula and not easy to observe The exact nature of CG4 remains a mystery.\u00a0Credit:\u00a0ESO\/J.Perez\/Digitized Sky Survey 2\/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org<\/a>). Music: movetwo<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The head of CG4, which is the part visible on this image and resembles the head of the gigantic beast, has a diameter of 1.5 light-years. The tail of the globule \u2014 which extends downwards and is not visible in the image \u2014 is about eight light-years long. By astronomical standards this makes it a comparatively small cloud.<\/p>\n

The relatively small size is a general feature of cometary globules. All of the cometary globules found so far are isolated, relatively small clouds of neutral gas and dust within the Milky Way, which are surrounded by hot ionised material.<\/p>\n

The head part of CG4 is a thick cloud of gas and dust, which is only visible because it is illuminated by the light from nearby stars. The radiation emitted by these stars is gradually destroying the head of the globule and eroding away the tiny particles that scatter the starlight. However, the dusty cloud of CG4 still contains enough gas to make several Sun-sized stars and indeed, CG4 is actively forming new stars, perhaps triggered as radiation from the stars powering the Gum Nebula reached CG4.<\/p>\n

\"eso1503c_500x523\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This wide-field image shows a rich region of the sky in the constellation of Puppis (The Poop). At the centre lies the strange cometary globule CG4. Other interesting objects are also seen, including several much more distant spiral galaxies. This colour view was produced from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.\u00a0Credit:\u00a0<\/strong>ESO and Digitized Sky Survey 2<\/em><\/p>\n

Why CG4 and other cometary globules have their distinct form is still a matter of debate among astronomers and two theories have developed. Cometary globules, and therefore also CG4, could originally have been spherical nebulae, which were disrupted and acquired their new, unusual form because of the effects of a nearby supernova explosion. Other astronomers suggest, that cometary globules are shaped by stellar winds and ionising radiation from hot, massive OB stars<\/a>. These effects could first lead to the bizarrely (but appropriately!) named formations known as elephant trunks<\/a> and then eventually cometary globules.<\/p>\n

To find out more, astronomers need to find out the mass, density, temperature, and velocities of the material in the globules. These can be determined by the measurements of molecular spectral lines which are most easily accessible at millimetre wavelengths \u2014 wavelengths at which telescopes like the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array (ALMA<\/a>) operate.<\/p>\n

This picture comes from the ESO Cosmic Gems programme<\/a>, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach. The programme makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations. All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO\u2019s science archive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0ESO\u00a0(European Southern Observatory) posts the latest finding: \u00a0The Mouth of the Beast Like the gaping mouth of a gigantic celestial creature, the cometary globule CG4 glows menacingly in this image from ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope. Although it looks huge and bright in this image it is actually a faint nebula and not easy to observe. … Continue reading ESO: The Mouth of the Beast<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-2xv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12546,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12546","url_meta":{"origin":9765,"position":0},"title":"ESO: Ancient inner solar system object returns from tour of the Oort Cloud","author":"TopSpacer","date":"April 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A new report from ESO (European Southern Observatory): Unique Fragment from Earth\u2019s Formation Returns after Billions of Years in Cold Storage Tailless Manx comet from Oort Cloud brings clues about the origin of the Solar System Astronomers have found a unique object that appears to be made of inner Solar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"eso1614a[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/eso1614a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7017,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=7017","url_meta":{"origin":9765,"position":1},"title":"ICE\/ISEE-3 spacecraft signals picked up by amateur space radio buffs","author":"TopSpacer","date":"March 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I posted earlier about attempts to reawaken the 36 year old ISEE-3 spacecraft and return it to useful science work. \u00a0Emily Lakdawalla\u00a0writes that amateur space radio enthusiasts have actually been able to receive its signals:\u00a0ICE\/ISEE-3 update: Amateurs detect its signal while professionals study contacting it - The Planetary Society. 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