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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

unknownskywalker: Reflecting Merope In the well known Pleiades star cluster, starlight is slowly destroying this wandering cloud of gas and dust, known as IC 349. The star Merope lies just off the upper left edge of this picture from the Hubble Space Telescope. In the past 100,000 years, part of the cloud has by chance moved so close to this star—only 3,500 times the Earth-Sun distance—that the starlight itself is having a very dramatic effect. Pressure of the star’s light significantly repels the dust in the reflection nebula, and smaller dust particles are repelled more strongly. As a result, parts of the dust cloud have become stratified, pointing toward Merope. The closest particles are the most massive and the least affected by the radiation pressure. A longer-term result will be the general destruction of the dust by the energetic starlight. • Image Credit: NASA

unknownskywalker:

Reflecting Merope

In the well known Pleiades star cluster, starlight is slowly destroying this wandering cloud of gas and dust, known as IC 349. The star Merope lies just off the upper left edge of this picture from the Hubble Space Telescope.

In the past 100,000 years, part of the cloud has by chance moved so close to this star—only 3,500 times the Earth-Sun distance—that the starlight itself is having a very dramatic effect.

Pressure of the star’s light significantly repels the dust in the reflection nebula, and smaller dust particles are repelled more strongly. As a result, parts of the dust cloud have become stratified, pointing toward Merope.

The closest particles are the most massive and the least affected by the radiation pressure. A longer-term result will be the general destruction of the dust by the energetic starlight.

• Image Credit: NASA

  1. nextatnine reblogged this from fuckyeahnebulas
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  5. madamdoesnothing reblogged this from fuckyeahnebulas and added:
    ^ Wrong. It’s a fucking Patronus. Get it right. Possibly of some sort of monkey or ape, or whatever… however that is...
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    I hope that when I’m made of stardust, I can be this close to a star and go all pretty-like before being destroyed...
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