Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Sun Mar 03 2019 05:38:23 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2019 March 3 [2] The Orion Bullets Image Credit: GeMS/GSAOI Team, Gemini Observatory, AURA [3] , NSF; Processing: Rodrigo Carrasco (Gemini Obs.), Travis Rector [4] (Univ. Alaska Anchorage [5] ) Explanation: Why are bullets of gas shooting out of the Orion Nebula? Nobody is yet sure. First discovered in 1983, each bullet is actually about the size of our Solar System [6] , and moving at about 400 km/sec [7] from a central source dubbed IRc2. The age of the bullets, which can be found from their speed and distance from IRc2 [8] , is very young -- typically less than 1,000 years. As the bullets expand [9] out the top of the Kleinmann-Low [10] section of the Orion Nebula [11] , a small percentage of iron gas causes the tip of each bullet to glow blue, while each bullet [12] leaves a tubular pillar that glows by the light of heated hydrogen gas. The detailed image [13] was created using the 8.1 meter Gemini South [14] telescope in Chile [15] with an adaptive optics [16] system (GeMS). GeMS uses [17] five laser generated [18] guide stars to help compensate for the blurring effects [19] of planet Earth's atmosphere [20] . Tomorrow's picture: sky aligned ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [21] | Archive [22] | Submissions [23] | Index [24] | Search [25] | Calendar [26] | RSS [27] | Education [28] | About APOD [29] | Discuss [30] | > [31] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [32] (MTU [33] ) & Jerry Bonnell [34] (UMCP [35] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [36] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [37] A service of: ASD [38] at NASA [39] / GSFC [40] & Michigan Tech. U. [41] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] image/1903/OrionBullets_Gemini_2592.jpg [3] http://www.gemini.edu/ [4] http://aftar.uaa.alaska.edu/ [5] http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/ [6] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/our-solar-system/in-depth/ [7] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000MNRAS.315...11L [8] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000ApJ...534..976N [9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAD142TDcp0 [10] ap990302.html [11] ap990202.html [12] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013prpl.conf1B009G [13] http://www.gemini.edu/node/11925 [14] http://www.gemini.edu/about [15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile [16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_optics [17] http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/instruments/gems [18] ap090816.html [19] ap000725.html [20] https://espo.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/Atmosphere36small.jpg [21] ap190302.html [22] archivepix.html [23] lib/apsubmit2015.html [24] lib/aptree.html [25] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [26] calendar/allyears.html [27] /apod.rss [28] lib/edlinks.html [29] lib/about_apod.html [30] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190303 [31] ap190304.html [32] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [33] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [34] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [35] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [36] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [37] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [38] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [39] https://www.nasa.gov/ [40] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [41] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .