Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  California Nebula  ·  El Nath (βTau)  ·  Flaming Star Nebula  ·  IC 341  ·  IC 353  ·  IC 354  ·  IC 360  ·  IC 405  ·  Maia Nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1499  ·  Part of the constellation Auriga (Aur)  ·  Part of the constellation Perseus (Per)  ·  Part of the constellation Taurus (Tau)  ·  The star Aldebaran (αTau)  ·  The star Atik (ζPer)  ·  The star Atlas (27Tau)  ·  The star Elnath  ·  The star γTau  ·  The star εPer  ·  The star εTau  ·  The star ηTau  ·  The star θ2Tau  ·  The star ιAur

Image of the day 04/30/2022

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
A Cosmic Waterfall, Christian Koll
A Cosmic Waterfall
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A Cosmic Waterfall

Image of the day 04/30/2022

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
A Cosmic Waterfall, Christian Koll
A Cosmic Waterfall
Powered byPixInsight

A Cosmic Waterfall

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Description

Between the constellations of Taurus and Auriga a stretch of dark clouds form what looks like a cosmic waterfall.
“Pouring down” between the California Nebula and the Pleiades star cluster are 30-40 thousand solar masses of gas and dust, including a variety of organic and inorganic molecules. The gravitational collapse of dense clumps within the nebula creates young T Tauri stars, named for their prototype star in the constellation of Taurus.
This six-panel mosaic shows the magnificent structures of the Taurus-Auriga dark clouds on a large scale.

P.S. March 2023: I reprocessed this mosaik today using much more sophisticated processing techniques like BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator and NoiseXTerminator.
I will leave the original version as it is, so you can compare what a difference these tools make. This image actually only shows half the resolution available - the original is 15,000x15,000 pixels.

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    A Cosmic Waterfall, Christian Koll
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A Cosmic Waterfall, Christian Koll