William Ostling
The dim and detailed jellyfish: A 112-hour collaboration from three continents!
The jellyfish nebula is a notoriously dim object in the night sky. As a result, most images of this nebula are highly denoised, leading to a loss of detail. But by combining nearly 1000 exposures and 6740 minutes of exposure from collaborators across three continents for a total integration time of 112.4 hours, we were able to reveal structures and detail previously not displayed by previous images.
In this image, channels are mapped in the classic Hubble palette, where ionized sulfur is represented by red, ionized hydrogen is represented by green, and ionized oxygen is represented by blue.
The Jellyfish Nebula is a stupendously complicated nebula created by the remains of a massive star that exploded. In the center of this jellyfish lies interweaving tendrils of hydrogen, sulfur, and wispy oxygen warped by an intragalactic wind coming from the northeast. Dark lanes of inert dust obscure small portions of the Jellyfish. The bowshock-like “head” of the jellyfish was most likely formed by its contact with the denser nebulosity to the left of the jellyfish. The Sulfur and Oxygen tendrils escaping the Jellyfish to the left and to the bottom are most likely a result of unstable magnetic fields from the supernova. The field of nebulosity to the right, although unrelated to the supernova, greatly affects the movement of the supernova’s western region.
Acquisition: Andy Brown (@abastrophotouk), Dominic (@domnuch), Jay Aigner (@aignerastro), Oliver Carter (@bright_ascension), Tommy Lease (@colorado_astro), Jens Unger (@jazz.astro), Sendhil (@deepskyimaging), Justin P. (@justadudewitha_camera_)
Image processing: William Ostling (@the_astronomy_enthusiast), Justin P. (@justadudewitha_camera_)
The dim and detailed jellyfish: A 112-hour collaboration from three continents!
The jellyfish nebula is a notoriously dim object in the night sky. As a result, most images of this nebula are highly denoised, leading to a loss of detail. But by combining nearly 1000 exposures and 6740 minutes of exposure from collaborators across three continents for a total integration time of 112.4 hours, we were able to reveal structures and detail previously not displayed by previous images.
In this image, channels are mapped in the classic Hubble palette, where ionized sulfur is represented by red, ionized hydrogen is represented by green, and ionized oxygen is represented by blue.
The Jellyfish Nebula is a stupendously complicated nebula created by the remains of a massive star that exploded. In the center of this jellyfish lies interweaving tendrils of hydrogen, sulfur, and wispy oxygen warped by an intragalactic wind coming from the northeast. Dark lanes of inert dust obscure small portions of the Jellyfish. The bowshock-like “head” of the jellyfish was most likely formed by its contact with the denser nebulosity to the left of the jellyfish. The Sulfur and Oxygen tendrils escaping the Jellyfish to the left and to the bottom are most likely a result of unstable magnetic fields from the supernova. The field of nebulosity to the right, although unrelated to the supernova, greatly affects the movement of the supernova’s western region.
Acquisition: Andy Brown (@abastrophotouk), Dominic (@domnuch), Jay Aigner (@aignerastro), Oliver Carter (@bright_ascension), Tommy Lease (@colorado_astro), Jens Unger (@jazz.astro), Sendhil (@deepskyimaging), Justin P. (@justadudewitha_camera_)
Image processing: William Ostling (@the_astronomy_enthusiast), Justin P. (@justadudewitha_camera_)