Profound Pink Patches
Shown here are a few star forming regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud (a companion to our own
Milky Way that we are unceremoniously ripping apart!). When generally viewed closer to home,
these kinds of regions in our own galaxy show intricate detail and astonishingly bright clouds. When
seen in even the nearest galaxies, star forming areas tend to be small pink signposts that only hint
at the activity within. Here 170,000 light years away these HII regions in the LMC are an interesting mix
of detail and mystery. Not quite close enough to see the smallest features- but not so far as to make
them seem out of reach.
This data is courtesy of Eddie Trimarchi whose southern
hemisphere outpost permits him to capture "strange" nebula as viewed by northern hemisphere eyes. The image
was processed during a recent workshop.
The luminance data is comprised of many hours of Ha data. This information was blended with RGB data to produce
the result above.
Click on the above image for a larger
version.
See Also NGC 604 (in M33) in the Best of AOP gallery for
another extra-galactic nebula that shows remarkable detail given its astounding intrinsic size.
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