#ae aurigae

[quiltofstars]

The Flaming Star Nebula, C31 // Gianmarco Spagnoli

Just at the center of the Flaming Star Nebula lies the blue variable star AE Aurigae. This is a young star that is exceptionally hot (33,000 K), massive (23 times solar), and luminous (59,000 times solar). This star lights up the surrounding gas which we see as the Flaming Star Nebula.

Interestingly, this nebula is not AE Aurigae's birthplace. It is a runaway star. It likely was formed all the way over in the Orion Nebula (M42) about two million years ago. A collision of two binary star systems likely tossed AE Aurigae out.

[the-maddest-robot]

Image of IC 405 aka the Flaming Star Nebula This is an emission (the red part) and reflection (the blue part) nebula. It's relatively bright for a nebula with visual magnitude of +6.

The bright star at the center of the blue reflection nebula is AE Aurigae, it's the star responsible for the ionisation of the gas in this nebula. AE Aurigae is what's known as a runaway star, those are star that moves at high speed compared to their surrounding environment. They are the result of gravitational interaction between stars or stars being ejected by nearby supernovae. In the case of AE Aurigae, it was probably ejected due to gravitational interaction, its path has been traced back to the Orion Nebula from which it was ejected about 2 million years ago.

The moon was nearly full and somewhat close by when I took the photos, so it was a bit tricky to process them. As a result, the reflection part of the nebula was not as visible as I would have liked but I think the overall result is not too bad.

Image taken using a CarbonStar 150/600 newtonian telescope with a 0.95 coma corrector, ZWO ASI294 monochrome camera. 6x300s image for each colour filter (LRGB) and 12x300s for the Ha filter, total imaging time 3h, stacking and processing done in PixInsight.

Tried applying the Ortonglow script in PixInsight to give the nebula a bit more depth, but I don't like the halos it gave around the bright stars on the left.

[apod]

2023 March 1

The Flaming Star Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Thomas Röell

Explanation: Is star AE Aurigae on fire? No. Even though AE Aurigae is named the Flaming Star and the surrounding nebula IC 405 is named the Flaming Star Nebula, and even though the nebula appears to some like a swirling flame, there is no fire. Fire, typically defined as the rapid molecular acquisition of oxygen, happens only when sufficient oxygen is present and is not important in such high-energy, low-oxygen environments such as stars. The bright star AE Aurigae occurs near the center of the Flaming Star Nebula and is so hot it glows blue, emitting light so energetic it knocks electrons away from surrounding gas. When a proton recaptures an electron, light is emitted, as seen in the surrounding emission nebula. Captured here three weeks ago, the Flaming Star Nebula is visible near the composite image's center, between the red Tadpole Nebula on the left and blue-tailed Comet ZTF on the right. The Flaming Star Nebula lies about 1,500 light years distant, spans about 5 light years, and is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230301.html

[talltalestogo]

AE Aurigae and the Flaming Star Nebula.

[nlockett]

APOD: The Flaming Star Nebula (3/1/23) Is star AE Aurigae on fire? No. Even though AE Aurigae is named the Flaming Star and the surrounding nebula IC 405 is named the Flaming Star Nebula, and even though the nebula appears to some like a swirling flame, there is no fire. Fire, typically defined as the rapid molecular acquisition of oxygen, happens only when sufficient oxygen is present and is not important in such high-energy, low-oxygen environments such as stars. The bright star AE Aurigae occurs near the center of the Flaming Star Nebula and is so hot it glows blue, emitting light so energetic it knocks electrons away from surrounding gas. When a proton recaptures an electron, light is emitted, as seen in the surrounding emission nebula. Captured here three weeks ago, the Flaming Star Nebula is visible near the composite image's center, between the red Tadpole Nebula on the left and blue-tailed Comet ZTF on the right. The Flaming Star Nebula lies about 1,500 light years distant, spans about 5 light years, and is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). © Thomas Röell

[misspepita]

via NASA https://ift.tt/vMR9oU8

Is star AE Aurigae on fire? No. Even though AE Aurigae is named the Flaming Star and the surrounding nebula IC 405 is named the Flaming Star Nebula, and even though the nebula appears to some like a swirling flame, there is no fire. Fire, typically defined as the rapid molecular acquisition of oxygen, happens only when sufficient oxygen is present and is not important in such high-energy, low-oxygen environments such as stars. The bright star AE Aurigae occurs near the center of the Flaming Star Nebula and is so hot it glows blue, emitting light so energetic it knocks electrons away from surrounding gas. When a proton recaptures an electron, light is emitted, as seen in the surrounding emission nebula. Captured here three weeks ago, the Flaming Star Nebula is visible near the composite image's center, between the red Tadpole Nebula on the left and blue-tailed Comet ZTF on the right. The Flaming Star Nebula lies about 1,500 light years distant, spans about 5 light years, and is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).

[jmonterol]

IC 405 /  AE Aurigae

IC 405, también llamada C 31 o nebulosa de la estrella llameante, es una nebulosa de emisión/reflexión en la constelación del Auriga situada a 1500 AL de casa.

La tonalidad rojiza se debe al hidrógeno ionizado por AE Aurigae, una estrella azul de tipo espectral O de solo 2,7 millones de años. Es una variable irregular con una luminosidad de 30.000 soles nada menos y una temperatura de 33.000 K (nuestro sol tiene 5778 K).

Refractor TS Photoline 72 mm a f6. Cámara imx 294.

[spinningblueball]

IC 405 - Flaming Star Nebula & AE Aurigae

[ragazzoarcano]

🌌✨

AE Aurigae

[wigmund]

From Astronomy Picture of the Day; February 25, 2018:

AE Aurigae and the Flaming Star Nebula Martin Pugh

Why is AE Aurigae called the flaming star? For one reason, the surrounding nebula IC 405 is named the Flaming Star Nebula because the region seems to harbor smoke, even though nothing is on fire, including interior star AE Aurigae. Fire, typically defined as the rapid molecular acquisition of oxygen, happens only when sufficient oxygen is present and is not important in such high-energy, low-oxygen environments. The material that appears as smoke is mostly interstellar hydrogen, but does contain smoke-like dark filaments of carbon-rich dust grains. The bright star AE Aurigae is visible near the nebula center and is so hot it is blue, emitting light so energetic it knocks electrons away from atoms in the surrounding gas. When an atom recaptures an electron, light is emitted creating the surrounding emission nebula. The Flaming Star nebula lies about 1,500 light years distant, spans about 5 light years, and is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).

[quiltofstars]

The Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405 // sreilly24590

The star at the center of the nebula is AE Aurigae, an irregular variable star.

[brightestofcentaurus]

AE Aurigae

AE Aurigae is a bright star located within the Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405. The nebula is located about 1,500 light years away towards the constellation Auriga, the Charioteer. It is about 5 light years across.

AE Aurigae emits strong enough light to strip electrons from nearby atoms. When the electrons recombine with their protons, they emit light in the color characteristic of their element and create a bright emission nebula. The nebula also contains clouds of hydrogen gas laced with thick carbon dust.

Image and information from NASA.

[entertainmentnerdly]

AE Aurigae and the Flaming Star Nebula via /r/ScienceImages http://ift.tt/2BNtqMt

[just--space]

IC 405: The Flaming Star Nebula : Rippling dust and gas lanes give the Flaming Star Nebula its name. The orange and purple colors of the nebula are present in different regions and are created by different processes. The bright star AE Aurigae, visible toward the image left, is so hot it is blue, emitting light so energetic it knocks electrons away from surrounding gas. When a proton recaptures an electron, red light is frequently emitted (depicted here in orange). The purple region's color is a mix of this red light and blue light emitted by AE Aurigae but reflected to us by surrounding dust. The two regions are referred to as emission nebula and reflection nebula, respectively. Pictured here in the Hubble color palette, the Flaming Star Nebula, officially known as IC 405, lies about 1500 light years distant, spans about 5 light years, and is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). via NASA

[the0phrastus]

The Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405, SH 2-229, Caldwell 31) is a massive emission nebula and reflection nebula, 1500 lightyears away in the constellation Auriga. IC 405 is about 5 lightyears across, so that's roughly 30 trillion miles (47 trillion kilometers) of dense clouds of ionized hydrogen. With the stars in the field of view removed (or just de-emphasized) you can really see the motion in the clouds of hydrogen and interstellar dust. It is the intense radiation and stellar winds from energetic stars (especially AE Aurigae, a rather large blue O-type main sequence star) that drive these clouds through space, but that motion and the complexity of the cloud structures is not as easy to see with all the stars in the way. Imaging Notes: 60 x 240sec subs stacked in DSS. William Optics GT81 Apo refractor, 6nm Astronomik Ha filter, ZWO ASI 1600MM-Pro monochrome camera. Star removal: StarNet++

[mystarypi-astronomy]

The Flaming Star Nebula! 🔥✨🔥✨🔥

The center of this nebula contains the bright star AE Aurigae. The light of the star is absorbed into the nearby gas and dust of the nebula, making it look red! ❤❤❤

Taken by me (Michelle Park) using the Slooh Canary One telescope on July 27th, 2020 at 5:27 UTC.