Infrared image reveals what’s beneath Jupiter’s clouds<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/li>

Milky Way bulge imaged in survey of 250 million stars<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/li>

‘Eccentric’ planet has stretched-out orbit<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><\/div>
Credit: International Gemini Observatory \/ NOIRLab \/ NSF \/ AURA MH Wong (UC Berkeley) and team<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/figure>It shows a cosmic cloud located 5,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/lightyear\">lightyears<\/a> from Earth, meaning its light takes so long to reach us, we’re seeing it as it existed 5,000 years ago.<\/p>The Rosette is much bigger than the more famous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/astrophotography\/nebulae\/the-orion-nebula-m42\">Orion Nebula<\/a> \u2013 five times larger in fact \u2013 yet both span roughly the same area in the night sky because the Rosette is four times further away.<\/p>This colourful image is full of red, gold and purple hues, lit up by NGC 2244, a young <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/star-clusters-astronomer-guide\">star cluster<\/a> at the heart of the nebula.<\/p>Radiation from young stars in the NGC 2244 cluster ionises hydrogen gas, which not only generates the amazing array of colours seen in the image, but is also carving out the centre of the nebula.<\/p>In the image, different colours represent different chemicals, red representing\u00a0highly energised hydrogen, gold and yellow indicating ionised oxygen and pink revealing light emitted by ionised silicon.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full has-lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1021\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/10\/rosette-nebula-dark-energy-camera.jpg\" alt=\"Image of the Rosette Nebula and star cluster NGC 2244 captured by the Dark Energy Camera on the U.S. National Science Foundation V\u00edctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Credit: CTIO\/NOIRLab\/DOE\/NSF\/AURA. Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage\/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)\" class=\"wp-image-163826\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image of the Rosette Nebula and star cluster NGC 2244 captured by the Dark Energy Camera on the U.S. National Science Foundation V\u00edctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Click image to expand. Credit: CTIO\/NOIRLab\/DOE\/NSF\/AURA. Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage\/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>By capturing a clear view of star cluster NGC 2244, the Dark Energy Cam is providing astronomers with a spectacular view of a 2-million-year-old object, born out of the nebula’s gasses, clumped together by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/what-is-gravity-facts-about-force\">gravity<\/a>.<\/p>We can clearly see streams of dark cosmic dust, so thick, cold and clumpy that they don’t appear to glow in colour like the rest of the nebula.<\/p>The image clearly shows a feature known as the ‘Wrench Trunk’ \u2013 seen around the 1 o’clock position of the central cavity \u2013 a dusty structure whose shape traces the Rosette Nebula’s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/what-are-magnetic-fields-how-do-they-affect-universe\">magnetic field<\/a>.<\/p>Dark globulettes, blobs of dust seen in the image are tiny: just a few times more massive than Jupiter. Hundreds of them are peppered around the Rosette Nebula and may host <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/exoplanets\">exoplanets<\/a> and brown dwarfs (failed stars).<\/p>We’re witnessing the slow death of the Rosette Nebula, as in about 10 million years’ time, radiation from those hot, powerful young stars of NGC 244 will have destroyed the nebula, their own cosmic birthplace.<\/p>What do you like about this image of the Rosette Nebula? Let us know by emailing <a href=\"mailto:contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Iain Todd Published: Tuesday, 22 October 2024 at 13:03 PM The Dark Energy Camera has turned its sights on one of the most famous, most striking cosmic clouds: the Rosette Nebula. This colourful capture of the enormous nebula was produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of NOIRLab, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":65018,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/rosette-nebula-stuns-in-new-dark-energy-camera-image-here-are-10-reasons-why-this-picture-is-amazing.jpg",1200,1021,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/rosette-nebula-stuns-in-new-dark-energy-camera-image-here-are-10-reasons-why-this-picture-is-amazing-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/rosette-nebula-stuns-in-new-dark-energy-camera-image-here-are-10-reasons-why-this-picture-is-amazing-300x255.jpg",300,255,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/rosette-nebula-stuns-in-new-dark-energy-camera-image-here-are-10-reasons-why-this-picture-is-amazing-768x653.jpg",768,653,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/rosette-nebula-stuns-in-new-dark-energy-camera-image-here-are-10-reasons-why-this-picture-is-amazing-1024x871.jpg",800,680,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/rosette-nebula-stuns-in-new-dark-energy-camera-image-here-are-10-reasons-why-this-picture-is-amazing.jpg",1200,1021,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/rosette-nebula-stuns-in-new-dark-energy-camera-image-here-are-10-reasons-why-this-picture-is-amazing.jpg",1200,1021,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Iain Todd Published: Tuesday, 22 October 2024 at 13:03 PM The Dark Energy Camera has turned its sights on one of the most famous, most striking cosmic clouds: the Rosette Nebula. This colourful capture of the enormous nebula was produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of NOIRLab, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/65017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}