Coyote Head Nebula Does Not Approve

Spitzer_sig14-009_1024

spitzer_sig14-009 May 15th, 2014

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

When searching for the nicest nebulas in the sky it's nice when your friends help you out. This striking star formation region, mapped in infrared light by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, was recently spotted by one of Spitzer's Twitter followers searching through the GLIMPSE360 panorama of our Milky Way galaxy.

One of multitudes of star-forming nebulas scattered across the sky, this area had been a bit of a "dirty" secret, tucked away behind a veil of dust that blocks our view in visible light. That obscuring veil fades away under Spitzer's infrared gaze revealing a collection of young stars bursting out of the dusty gas clouds in which they formed. Astronomers identify this area only by a collection of catalog numbers like IRAS 15541-5349.

This image is a tiny snippet of the vast 20 gigapixel GLIMPSE360 panorama released in March 2014. Visitors were encouraged to use the web viewers on the Spitzer site to search through the data and then share and name their findings on Twitter. This region was tweeted by @kevinmgill, who tagged it "Nebula Does Not Approve."

Nebula images are a bit like a Rorschach inkblot test and the Spitzer team, on seeing the image, found plenty of other hidden parallels, including a fish, a raccoon, a Minecraft Creeper and a "cute coyote's head." This last idea lent an informal name for this hidden region: the "Coyote Head Nebula."

This picture was taken with Spitzer's InfraRed Array Camera, as part of the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) project. It is a four-color composite, in which light with a wavelength of 3.6 microns is blue; 4.5-micron light is green; 5.8-micron light is orange; and 8-micron light is red. Dust is red, hot gas is green, and white is where gas and dust intermingle. Foreground and background stars appear scattered through the image.

Provider: Spitzer Space Telescope

Image Source: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/5824-sig14-009-Coyote-Head-Nebula-Does-Not-Approve

Curator: Spitzer Space Telescope, Pasadena, CA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/info/18-Image-Use-Policy

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Coyote Head Nebula IRAS 15541-5349
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Star Formation
Spitzer_sig14-009_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 15h 57m 54.9s
DEC = -53° 59’ 56.7”
Orientation
North is 40.3° CCW
Field of View
36.0 x 30.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Norma

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Spitzer (IRAC) Infrared (Near-IR) 3.6 µm
Green Spitzer (IRAC) Infrared (Near-IR) 4.5 µm
Orange Spitzer (IRAC) Infrared (Mid-IR) 5.8 µm
Red Spitzer (IRAC) Infrared (Mid-IR) 8.0 µm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Orange
Red
Spitzer_sig14-009_1280
×
ID
sig14-009
Subject Category
B.4.1.2  
Subject Name
Coyote Head Nebula, IRAS 15541-5349
Credits
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Release Date
2014-05-15
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/5824-sig14-009-Coyote-Head-Nebula-Does-Not-Approve
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Spitzer, Spitzer, Spitzer, Spitzer
Instrument
IRAC, IRAC, IRAC, IRAC
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Orange, Red
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
Near-IR, Near-IR, Mid-IR, Mid-IR
Central Wavelength
3600, 4500, 5800, 8000
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
239.47885066555273, -53.999079620430628
Reference Dimension
1800, 1500
Reference Pixel
900, 750
Scale
-0.00033333333333, 0.00033333333333
Rotation
40.32
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
Spitzer Space Telescope
URL
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
1200 E. California Blvd.
City
Pasadena
State/Province
CA
Postal Code
91125
Country
USA
Rights
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/info/18-Image-Use-Policy
Publisher
Spitzer Science Center
Publisher ID
spitzer
Resource ID
sig14-009.tif
Metadata Date
2014-05-15
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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