The Flame Nebula Blazes Like a Cosmic Bonfire in This Stunning New Image

The Flame Nebula Blazes Like a Cosmic Bonfire in This Stunning New Image

A new image of the Flame Nebula shows the interstellar cloud as we’ve never seen it before.

A team of astronomers using the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope has captured the star-forming region in radio wavelengths, revealing details that we had never seen before.

The Flame Nebula, which is close to the famous Horsehead Nebula, forms part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, located in the constellation of Orion, which is one of the most well-studied and imaged regions in the night sky.

“As astronomers like to say, whenever there is a new telescope or instrument around, observe Orion: there will always be something new and interesting to discover!” says astronomer Thomas Stanke of the European Southern Observatory.

(ESO/Th. Stanke & ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA/Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit)

Above: Composite image showing radio and infrared wavelengths.

The Orion complex is a vast series of star-forming nebulas that spans hundreds of light-years in all directions, starting at about 1,000 light-years from the Solar System. Because it’s so close (cosmically speaking) and so huge, it’s an excellent laboratory for studying how stars are born.

The Flame Nebula is one of many stellar nurseries in the complex. It’s what is classified as an emission nebula; that is, it emits its own light, as opposed to reflection nebulas, which only shine with reflected starlight, and dark nebulas, which don’t shine at all but shadow across the sky like chasms in the cosmos.

What makes an emission nebula shine is the ionization of gases in the nebula by bright radiation from a nearby hot star. Since young stars are often very hot, stellar nurseries tend to shine brightly. The Flame Nebula is home to a cluster of hundreds of newly formed stars, concentrated in its center.

The Flame Nebula in radio wavelengths only. (ESO/Th. Stanke)

But stars are born in clouds of dense dust and gas, which tends to obscure the stars in optical wavelengths. An instrument like APEX, which captures images in radio wavelengths, can capture details our eyes can’t see.

In their observations of the Orion complex, Stanke and his colleagues were able to trace molecular outflows, vast winds driven out into interstellar space by star formation processes, and map molecular gas in different nebula regions.

The researchers also found a nebula no one had ever spotted before, almost perfectly circular, suggestive of a spherical cloud containing no stars. They called this object the Cow Nebula globule, and believe it could be used to study cloud structure and dynamics, although more observations will need to be made to better understand its nature and properties.

The team’s work has been accepted into Astronomy & Astrophysics and is available on arXiv.

Wallpaper-sized versions of the composite and radio-only images of the Flame Nebula can be found on the ESO website.

Prayers by the Bonfire

UP Wild to Hold a Winter Prayer Service in Rapid River Delta County Residents Will Gather Around a Bonfire to Experience Nature, Connect with the Divine, and Share Stories On Sunday, January 23, residents of the Central U.P. will gather on the grounds of the Hillcrest Inn and Motel in Rapid River, Michigan for a nature prayer service. UP Wild Church, an Upper Peninsula-based faith community, will host the event. Everyone is welcome. A nature prayer service is a gathering for those who seek to find the sacred in the natural world. It is an effort to forge a deeper connection to the wilderness and to creation. During the event, there will be wilderness-related readings, Scripture, a pilgrimage into nature, poetry, a sharing of stories, and prayers of the people. Attendees can expect to meet friendly people, enjoy a hot cup of tea, and warm themselves next to a roaring blaze. Sunday’s Service will begin at 3:00 PM. ———————————————————————– U.P. Wild is a cross-denomination non-profit organization which fosters deeper connections with the Creator through outdoor prayer services, hikes, and exploration of our Great Lakes bioregion. It receives financial support from the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan and the ECLA Lutheran Churches of Upper Michigan. All UP Wild events are open to everyone regardless of faith tradition.

Horses jump through bonfires in Spanish purification ceremony

“This comes from thousands of years ago. So that animals did not get unwell, the old priests would bless them with fires so that they would jump and be purified,” said Fermin Abad, 64, a local resident.

Old Newbury bonfire returns Saturday

Newburyport, MA (01950)

Today

On and off snow showers this morning. Peeks of sunshine later. High 43F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 30%..

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Rain and snow showers mixed late. Some sleet may mix in. Low 33F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 40%.

Indian Ladder Farms hosts Christmas tree bonfire

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – After COVID forced them to reschedule, Saturday evening Indian Ladder Farms Cidery and Brewery held its Christmas tree bonfire that was planned for New Year’s Eve.

When Christmas trees outlive their use, there are a few ways to dispose of them. At Indian Ladder Farms Cidery and Brewery, they wanted to dispose of your tree by fire; safely of course. “So when we planned this for New Year’s Eve, we thought it would be a great way to get people together for New Year’s Eve and be outside so we could be safe from COVID but COVID got us anyway,” says Laura Ten Eyck of Indian Ladder Farms.

By bringing your tree to toss onto the fire, people were able to get a little incentive to sip on while watching your tree go up in flames. If you bring your tree to throw on the bonfire you get a free beer or hard cider,” Ten Eyck says. She also says they received around 30 trees to burn and expected a few more throughout the night.

For those like Lyndsay Paul, it was a great chance to catch up with friends and keep warm on a day when temperatures were well into the single digits. “It’s great to come out and do something outdoors and watch the trees do that,” she says as a tree is tossed onto the fire.

This was the first time Indian Ladder Farms hosted the Christmas tree bonfire event. Because of turnout, they are thinking of making it an annual tradition.