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Hubble Science Briefing. The “Monkey’s Tooth ?” Hubble’s new infrared view of a star-forming pillar. April 3 , 2014 Zolt Levay ・ Hubble Heritage STScI. NGC 2174 Hubble’s 24 th Anniversary. Choosing the target Context, nomenclature Observation planning Observation timeline Data
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Hubble Science Briefing The “Monkey’s Tooth?” Hubble’s new infrared view of a star-forming pillar April 3, 2014 Zolt Levay ・ Hubble Heritage STScI
NGC 2174Hubble’s 24th Anniversary • Choosing the target • Context, nomenclature • Observation planning • Observation timeline • Data • Image features
WFPC2 2001 Yurij TukachevHubble’s Hidden Treasures
Zoom in to NGC 2174 Digitized Sky Survey red+blue
Star-forming cloud NGC 2174 SH 2-252 NGC 2174 HII (ionized) region NGC 2175Open (galactic) cluster Digitized Sky Survey red+blue
The monkey head? Photo: J-P Metsavainio
Observation planning • Orbits • Pointing/mosaic • Instruments, filters • Exposure time
Observation planning — pointing Astronomer’s Proposal Tool (APT), Aladin 2x2 mosaic ACS/WFC parallel WFC3/IR Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) image
Observation planning — visibility Astronomer’s Proposal Tool (APT)
Observation planning — orbit Astronomer’s Proposal Tool (APT)
Factoids • Name: NGC 2174-75, Monkey Head Nebula, Sharpless 2-252 (refers to larger nebula) • Constellation: Orion • Coordinates: R.A. 06h 09m10s, Dec. +20° 27′20″ • Distance: 6,400 light-years, 2 kiloparsecs (~5x M42) • Instrument: HST WFC3/IR • Observation date: February 7-24, 2014 • Wavelength: 1,050-1,600 nm (1.05-1.60 μm) • Exposure: 25-35 min./filter/pointing
Distinctive features in the image • Many more stars are apparent in the IR • Several small knots (red markers) are seen completely or nearly separated from the main body of the pillar feature. As the gas and dust are eroded and evaporated from the nebula, denser areas remain as islands, some of which may have enough density to collapse into stars. • At the top of one of the sub-pillars there appears to be a proto-stellar jet (yellow marker), the signature of early star formation. Jets appear in many star-forming regions such as this, sometimes apparent in visible light, sometimes only appearing in the IR. Higher resolution (JWST) imaging or spectroscopy would be needed to confirm that this is a jet. • Many galaxies (green markers) appear in the IR image, which are totally obscured in visible light. We can conclude that this region of space is much more transparent at infrared wavelengths. • Filaments of gas (blue markers) appear to be streaming from the surface of the denser portion of the pillar. The hot stars sculpting the material are heating and evaporating the gas and dust at the surface, and this material is moving away from the denser material, possibly under the influence of magnetic fields.
Hubble Heritage Zolt Levay Carol Christian Lisa Frattare Mario Livio Jennifer Mack Max Mutchler Shelly Meyett Keith Noll Josh Sokol