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What's this?
Really, I want to know. Chris Blattman doesn't know either. Please tell me in the comments.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on January 3, 2009 at 01:30 PM in Religion, Science | Permalink
Comments
I thought wikiSky had listed it as a "bubble" nebula, which I presume is a nebula that either formed as a perfect sphere or as a disk with the flat plane perpendicular to us. Personally, I think it looks like camera glare, but I suppose that's why I'm not an astronomer...
Posted by: JH at Jan 3, 2009 1:47:54 PM
Lens flare?
Posted by: Geoff Hamilton at Jan 3, 2009 1:51:31 PM
It's a bubble nebula--I couldn't track down this particular one, but there are images of many similar ones on the web
Posted by: Jay at Jan 3, 2009 1:59:03 PM
It is, indeed a bubble nebula. It was an Astronomy Picture of the Day last month:
Explanation: Adrift in the rich star fields of the constellation Cygnus, this lovely, symmetric bubble nebula was only recently recognized and may not yet appear in astronomical catalogs. In fact, amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich identified it as a nebula on July 6 in his images of the complex Cygnus region that included the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888). He subsequently notified the International Astronomical Union. Only eleven days later the same object was independently identified by Mel Helm at Sierra Remote Observatories, imaged by Keith Quattrocchi and Helm, and also submitted to the IAU as a potentially unknown nebula. Their final composite image is seen here, including narrow-band image data that highlights the nebula's delicate outlines. What is the newly recognized bubble nebula? Like the Crescent Nebula itself, this cosmic bubble could be blown by winds from a massive Wolf-Rayet star, or it could be a spherically-shaped planetary nebula, a final phase in the life of a sun-like star.
More wallpaper candidates here and here.
Posted by: Philip (flip) Kromer at Jan 3, 2009 2:13:57 PM
While I can't refute Kromer's response, I'll note that the image reminds me of gravitional lensing caused by dark matter:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/patricia_burchat_leads_a_search_for_dark_energy.html
Posted by: Tony Pino at Jan 3, 2009 2:23:14 PM
God's contact lens?
Posted by: js at Jan 3, 2009 2:33:01 PM
It's definitely not a gravitational lens. For one thing, there is faint green emission even within the circle, which you wouldn't expect with a lens. For another, it's extremely symmetric, which is unlikely to arise from a messy real-world cluster of galaxies. (An individual star wouldn't lens things that dramatically.)
It's definitely a bubble nebula. Extremely symmetric and well-formed, though, which is interesting. The surrounding interstellar medium must be very homogeneous (and probably pretty dilute).
Posted by: Sean Carrol at Jan 3, 2009 2:37:21 PM
"God's contact lens?"
Maybe that's why Tyler filed it under the "Religion" tag.
Posted by: Alex at Jan 3, 2009 2:42:37 PM
It's the subprime bubble waiting to burst.
Posted by: dearieme at Jan 3, 2009 2:52:50 PM
@Alex
That was funny.
Posted by: Christian at Jan 3, 2009 4:01:58 PM
Wonder whatever is (or was) at the center... ?
Posted by: MattF at Jan 3, 2009 4:19:51 PM
looks just like lens flare to me. maybe that's just cynical though.
Posted by: Peter at Jan 3, 2009 4:48:55 PM
It's a Praxis ring.
A long time ago, in another corner of the galaxy, someone had a very bad day.
Posted by: Franklin Harris at Jan 3, 2009 5:16:26 PM
universal bubble !!!
Posted by: at at Jan 3, 2009 6:13:42 PM
someone didn't use a coaster on your cosmos... (wow if I had a nickel for every time I heard that)
Posted by: lincoln mclain at Jan 3, 2009 7:03:26 PM
Oh my god...its full of stars!
Posted by: David at Jan 3, 2009 8:16:28 PM
Franklin,
Thanks for reminding me that the Star Trek writers were a bunch of anime geeks when anime just a really niche geek thing in the US.
Posted by: Xmas at Jan 3, 2009 8:40:34 PM
Whatever it is, will we have to bail it out when it bursts?
Posted by: CK at Jan 3, 2009 8:51:06 PM
Proof that that Alan Greenspan is from another planet.
Posted by: Yancey Ward at Jan 3, 2009 11:47:10 PM
It should be noted that, just before this was captured, children attended Space Camp were found chanting, "Hail, hail, fire and snow, call the angel, we will go, far away, for to see, friendly angel come to me."
Posted by: Eric H at Jan 4, 2009 12:15:46 AM
Now that you've seen The Ring, a creepy-looking girl will crawl out of your computer monitor in seven days.
Posted by: at Jan 4, 2009 1:01:44 AM
"The subprime problem has been contained. It's been contained on planet Earth." – Jim Grant, 2007
Another Pollyanna analyst proved wrong...
Posted by: at Jan 4, 2009 1:15:07 AM
Jim Grant was of course responding to:
"At this juncture, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the sub-prime market seems likely to be contained." -- Ben Bernanke, March 2007
Posted by: at Jan 4, 2009 1:24:10 AM
I can't say what it is, but I can clarify where it is. I ran it through the blind astrometry solver, and here's what part of the sky it's supposed to be in:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/22615198@N00/2i6972
Posted by: Christopher at Jan 4, 2009 1:34:17 AM
Looks like a prototypical planetary nebula to me. Just one that'd escaped notice before.
Posted by: MikeDC at Jan 4, 2009 1:48:16 AM
