4/17/2003: Dusty star

Undertoad · 04-17-2003, 11:20 AM

It's the last of the astro pics in the queue, another suggested by 'spode and another Hubble image.

And it looks like Hubble's broken again, sending along the kind of shot normally reserved for the amateur 35mm holiday pic-takers. How many billions of dollars spent on this thing, and it can't keep the camera still.

No, actually this is an aging star in the Egg Nebula, and it's shrugging off DUST. Fine carbon dust. Like a candle? Shrug, I don't know, but here this star is manufacturing dust from the fusion happening at its center. They think the dust might be good for building other things out in space - maybe dust like this gets pulled around new stars to help become planet-forming material.

The colors in the image are not natural; they applied different polarizing filters to different kinds of light, to try to figure out what light was getting reflected off the dust and why. Then they used color to show what light is seen from different filters. It's through studying that light that astronomers can *somehow* tell that the dust is carbon.

Griff · 04-17-2003, 11:44 AM

More Dusty Star pics.

warch · 04-17-2003, 12:28 PM

Heres your Dusty! (no polarizing filters used)

xoxoxoBruce · 04-17-2003, 04:09 PM

I've seen the same thing through my windshield, on the way home from a great party, in the wee hours.

warch · 04-17-2003, 04:29 PM

Was she driving?

xoxoxoBruce · 04-17-2003, 05:32 PM

No, no. I meant UT's picture. Sorry, I should have been specific, but it was a great party.

warch · 04-18-2003, 09:17 AM

I was inferring the similarities between all visible dusties at the end of an evening such as you described.

xoxoxoBruce · 04-18-2003, 03:30 PM

Duh.....yeah....what he said.

04-17-2003, 11:20 AM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	4/17/2003: Dusty star It's the last of the astro pics in the queue, another suggested by 'spode and another Hubble image. And it looks like Hubble's broken again, sending along the kind of shot normally reserved for the amateur 35mm holiday pic-takers. How many billions of dollars spent on this thing, and it can't keep the camera still. No, actually this is an aging star in the Egg Nebula, and it's shrugging off DUST. Fine carbon dust. Like a candle? Shrug, I don't know, but here this star is manufacturing dust from the fusion happening at its center. They think the dust might be good for building other things out in space - maybe dust like this gets pulled around new stars to help become planet-forming material. The colors in the image are not natural; they applied different polarizing filters to different kinds of light, to try to figure out what light was getting reflected off the dust and why. Then they used color to show what light is seen from different filters. It's through studying that light that astronomers can somehow tell that the dust is carbon.

04-17-2003, 11:44 AM	#2
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	More Dusty Star pics. __________________ If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you. - Louis D. Brandeis

04-17-2003, 04:09 PM	#4
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	I've seen the same thing through my windshield, on the way home from a great party, in the wee hours. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

04-17-2003, 05:32 PM	#6
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	No, no. I meant UT's picture. Sorry, I should have been specific, but it was a great party. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

04-18-2003, 03:30 PM	#8
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	Duh.....yeah....what he said. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

04-17-2003, 12:28 PM	#3
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	Heres your Dusty! (no polarizing filters used)

04-17-2003, 04:29 PM	#5
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	Was she driving?

04-18-2003, 09:17 AM	#7
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	I was inferring the similarities between all visible dusties at the end of an evening such as you described.

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