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Antares nebula

by Andrey Klimkovsky

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The solar system is located in the peripheral part of the Galaxy, which we call the Milky Way. That same Milky Way — a dim glow that stretches across the entire sky — this is the spiral arms of our giant star system, which we observe from the inside. We see other galaxies from the side, and this makes it possible to better understand ours.

The spiral galaxies, which include the Milky Way, have a lot in common. Most of their stellar population is concentrated in a flat and rather thin (by galactic standards) disk, in which spiral structures are pronounced. Some of the stars “live” in a spherical halo — this is a rather rarefied spherical part of the galaxy, but the stars there are very far from each other, and in the best photographs of other galaxies, their spherical halo is barely noticeable.

The most populous part of any galaxy is its central part — the galactic core. And the closer the region is to the center of the galaxy, the denser the stellar population there, the closer the stars are to each other, and interstellar space contains a huge amount of gas and dust — this is the building material for new stars and planets.

The clouds of dust and gas themselves usually do not glow, but they are often illuminated by bright stars located nearby. And dark nebulae can be seen against the background of light ones.

The center of our Galaxy would shine in the sky brighter than the full moon, if not for the huge clouds of interstellar dust that hide this amazing and mysterious place from us. And yet astronomers figured out this place — it turned out to be on the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpio. It is here that the Milky Way is unusually wide and brightest. If you look at this part of it through a small telescope or even binoculars, you can see indescribable stellar sparks, cascades of nebulae and star clusters, literally overlapping each other. Sometimes it is very difficult to single out a certain object — often it visually touches several others, although in space something may be much closer or further, and the apparent contact is just an illusion.

One of the most beautiful illusory superimpositions of nebulae and star clusters on top of each other is the region of the star Antares, which heads the constellation of Scorpio. The star got its name for its distinct red color, and since Scorpio is a zodiacal constellation, the planet Mars appears in it every two years, and it is also red. The star and the planet were often confused, mistaking one for the other, and in the end they decided to give the star a name — "Different from Mars" — this is exactly how "Antares" is translated (Anti — different, opposite (Latin), Ares — the ancient Greek god of war, and the Romans have Mars).

An incredible number of interesting astronomical objects have gathered around Antares. These are dark and light nebulae, star clusters. Astronomers began to give numbers to each such object — this is how one of the most extensive catalogs of nebulae, galaxies and clusters — NGC — New General Catalogue, containing thousands of objects, emerged. As you may have already noticed, this abbreviation can be deciphered in different ways.

And it was very difficult to separate the nebulae and clusters crawling on top of each other, to understand where one ends and another begins. Therefore, this delightful region of the sky is often referred to simply as the Antares Nebula.

Breathtaking astrophotography of this region of the sky shows that the epicenters of bright nebulae seem to coincide with bright stars. In fact, in this region of space, interstellar gas, from which new stars will emerge in the future, is everywhere. The already lit luminaries illuminate these gas clouds with their light. Against their background, you can see the filamentary structures of dark dust clouds. We see only those dusty nebulae that are closer to light gas ones.

To better understand the scale of this picture, I will report that the orange-red Antares and the nebula illuminated by it are located about 500 light-years away from us. Bright blue stars are even farther away — about 800 light years, and the globular star cluster M4 (or NGC 6121) accidentally caught in the frame is an order of magnitude further — about 7000 light years, and this is the closest globular star cluster to us.

The center of the Milky Way Galaxy, invisible due to the abundance of dust and gas on the way to it, is located approximately in this direction at a distance of about 30 thousand light years. The diameter of the entire galaxy is estimated at 100 thousand light years — an incomprehensible distance for the human mind. However, studying the stars, the cosmos, the Universe, we are rapidly expanding the boundaries of our perception, and at the same time the very idea of ​​the role of humanity in this World is changing.

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released May 26, 2021

Photo on cover by Leonardo Ciuffolotti www.astrobin.com/users/Leonardo-Ciuffolotti/

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Andrey Klimkovsky Moscow, Russia

Andrey Klimkovsky is one of leading russian composers working in the electronic musical space. Images creating by him - "Music of Celestial Spheres", "Starry Sky", "ALEALA" и "DreamOcean" - stayed the classics of the genre, received popularity as in Russia, and abroad. ... more

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