Birth, Balance, Death
Stars’ Lifecycles Play Out in One Patch of Sky
Let’s start with the three smaller objects: Near the top left are two bright orange nebulas; the larger is Sh2-217 and the smaller--which appears to rest on the shoulder of the giant blue-orange object--is Sh2-219. At the bottom center is nebula BFS 44. These three emission nebulas are all part of the same star forming region. Their illumination comes from the young stars born from the area’s dense interstellar clouds. This vast, cloudy region sits roughly 14,250 light years away from my widefield telescope and serves as the backdrop to the two big, bright elephants in this frame.
Sh2-221 and Sh2-216, to the left and right respectively, resulted from different types of star deaths. Sh2-221 is a supernova remnant (SNR). Approximately 6,000 years ago a giant star more than ten times the mass of our Sun exploded, throwing shock waves and filaments of hot gasses outward initially at about 10% of the speed of light (30,000 km/s). Eventually the debris will cool, slow, and reabsorb into the interstellar medium. Think of it like a firework exploding in the sky--This is how giant stars die.
The planetary nebula (PN) Sh2-216, aged at around 500,000 years old, is truly ancient as far as PNs are concerned; in fact, it is the oldest, largest, and closest known PN to Earth. This nebula formed when the core of an aging star in the same size range as our Sun contracted and superheated, pushing away its outer layers of hot gasses. This shell expanded outward at an approximate initial speed of only(!) 25 km/s. Sh2-216 has grown exceedingly dim, and its fuzzy edges indicate that it is beginning to dissipate. Think of it as a plume of smoke--This is how medium size stars die.
So these two objects appear about the same size, but which one is actually closer to us? SNR Sh2-221 is roughly 2,600 ly away and about 130 ly across, while PN Sh2-216 is approximately 400 ly away and 11 ly wide. Therefore, PN Sh2-216 is much closer and smaller in actual size than SNR Sh2-221. You know those travel photos of a tourist holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Well consider Sh2-221 the Tower and Sh2-216 the Tourist!
The telescope I used for this shot is my Takahashi FSQ-106 @ f/3.6, equivalent to a 382mm lens (for a telescope this is very wide angle, for a camera lens this is considered an ultra-telephoto). I’ll spare you all of the details on the camera except to say that it has a monochrome “full frame” sensor. This means that the image spans almost 5.5 degrees of sky, or eleven full Moons set in a horizontal row. There are many nebulas in our skies that would appear much larger than our Moon if only we could see them...Consider this for a moment: Space seems so abstract and remote, and its objects so impossibly small and distant; but if we had eyes evolved to see effectively in the dark, how colorful, textural, and alluring might the night sky appear to us?
See on Fluidr
To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space
Birth, Balance, Death
Stars’ Lifecycles Play Out in One Patch of Sky
Let’s start with the three smaller objects: Near the top left are two bright orange nebulas; the larger is Sh2-217 and the smaller--which appears to rest on the shoulder of the giant blue-orange object--is Sh2-219. At the bottom center is nebula BFS 44. These three emission nebulas are all part of the same star forming region. Their illumination comes from the young stars born from the area’s dense interstellar clouds. This vast, cloudy region sits roughly 14,250 light years away from my widefield telescope and serves as the backdrop to the two big, bright elephants in this frame.
Sh2-221 and Sh2-216, to the left and right respectively, resulted from different types of star deaths. Sh2-221 is a supernova remnant (SNR). Approximately 6,000 years ago a giant star more than ten times the mass of our Sun exploded, throwing shock waves and filaments of hot gasses outward initially at about 10% of the speed of light (30,000 km/s). Eventually the debris will cool, slow, and reabsorb into the interstellar medium. Think of it like a firework exploding in the sky--This is how giant stars die.
The planetary nebula (PN) Sh2-216, aged at around 500,000 years old, is truly ancient as far as PNs are concerned; in fact, it is the oldest, largest, and closest known PN to Earth. This nebula formed when the core of an aging star in the same size range as our Sun contracted and superheated, pushing away its outer layers of hot gasses. This shell expanded outward at an approximate initial speed of only(!) 25 km/s. Sh2-216 has grown exceedingly dim, and its fuzzy edges indicate that it is beginning to dissipate. Think of it as a plume of smoke--This is how medium size stars die.
So these two objects appear about the same size, but which one is actually closer to us? SNR Sh2-221 is roughly 2,600 ly away and about 130 ly across, while PN Sh2-216 is approximately 400 ly away and 11 ly wide. Therefore, PN Sh2-216 is much closer and smaller in actual size than SNR Sh2-221. You know those travel photos of a tourist holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Well consider Sh2-221 the Tower and Sh2-216 the Tourist!
The telescope I used for this shot is my Takahashi FSQ-106 @ f/3.6, equivalent to a 382mm lens (for a telescope this is very wide angle, for a camera lens this is considered an ultra-telephoto). I’ll spare you all of the details on the camera except to say that it has a monochrome “full frame” sensor. This means that the image spans almost 5.5 degrees of sky, or eleven full Moons set in a horizontal row. There are many nebulas in our skies that would appear much larger than our Moon if only we could see them...Consider this for a moment: Space seems so abstract and remote, and its objects so impossibly small and distant; but if we had eyes evolved to see effectively in the dark, how colorful, textural, and alluring might the night sky appear to us?
See on Fluidr
To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space