{"id":694,"date":"2007-01-16T22:56:31","date_gmt":"2007-01-17T02:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/?p=694"},"modified":"2008-10-04T17:47:09","modified_gmt":"2008-10-04T21:47:09","slug":"the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got sidetracked today on a planetarium show project and didn’t get a chance to blog until late tonight. I got to a stopping point (I’m doing a scratch narration so we can program the show on the dome before we bring in the pro narrator) and decided to resume shuffling through the goodies I brought home from AAS.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
A dark cloud in the region of Rho Ophiuchi, a star that lies more than 500 light-years away. Taken by the 2MASS (2-Micron All-Sky Survey) extended mission. A larger image, suitable for your desktop, is available here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the announcements I picked up at the meeting in Seattle was about an astronomical image mosaic engine called “Montage.” It’s aimed at the professional and high-end amateur astronomer who wants to assemble FITS images into custom mosaics. If that’s your bag, take a gander at the program page. If not, then just feast your eyes on the gorgeous image of the Rho Oph region that someone used Montage to create.<\/p>\n

The Rho Ophiuchi nebula is a cloud of dust and gas surrounding a hot, youngish star in the constellation Ophiuchus. The cloud itself has dust lanes interspersed with glowing gases lit by radiation from nearby stars. In some areas, young stars are forming deep within dust cocoons. Astronomers study this region to learn more about the early epochs of star formation, and they also survey its dust and gases to understand just what kinds of stars can form from these clouds. Rho Oph isn’t the only molecular cloud of its kind in our galaxy, but as you can see from the image above, it’s certainly among the loveliest to study.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got sidetracked today on a planetarium show project and didn’t get a chance to blog until late tonight. I got to a stopping point (I’m doing a scratch narration so we can program the show on the dome before we bring in the pro narrator) and decided to resume shuffling through the goodies I … Continue reading The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds - The Spacewriter's Ramblings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds - The Spacewriter's Ramblings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I got sidetracked today on a planetarium show project and didn’t get a chance to blog until late tonight. I got to a stopping point (I’m doing a scratch narration so we can program the show on the dome before we bring in the pro narrator) and decided to resume shuffling through the goodies I … Continue reading The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Spacewriter's Ramblings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-01-17T02:56:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-10-04T21:47:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/montage.ipac.caltech.edu\/images\/rhooph_small.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"C.C. Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@spacewriter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@spacewriter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"C.C. Petersen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"C.C. Petersen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/87ed05bea90dffaadf564821829edae2\"},\"headline\":\"The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-01-17T02:56:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-10-04T21:47:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/\"},\"wordCount\":293,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/87ed05bea90dffaadf564821829edae2\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/montage.ipac.caltech.edu\/images\/rhooph_small.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"astronomy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/\",\"name\":\"The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds - The Spacewriter's Ramblings\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/montage.ipac.caltech.edu\/images\/rhooph_small.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-01-17T02:56:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-10-04T21:47:09+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/montage.ipac.caltech.edu\/images\/rhooph_small.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/montage.ipac.caltech.edu\/images\/rhooph_small.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/\",\"name\":\"The Spacewriter's Ramblings\",\"description\":\"Exploring Science and the Cosmos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/87ed05bea90dffaadf564821829edae2\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/87ed05bea90dffaadf564821829edae2\",\"name\":\"C.C. Petersen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f8ff49b69797b4c7108aa81332515e4?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f8ff49b69797b4c7108aa81332515e4?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"C.C. Petersen\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"I am a science writer and media producer specializing in astronomy and space science content. This blog contains news and views about these topics.\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds - The Spacewriter's Ramblings","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds - The Spacewriter's Ramblings","og_description":"I got sidetracked today on a planetarium show project and didn’t get a chance to blog until late tonight. I got to a stopping point (I’m doing a scratch narration so we can program the show on the dome before we bring in the pro narrator) and decided to resume shuffling through the goodies I … Continue reading The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds →","og_url":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/","og_site_name":"The Spacewriter's Ramblings","article_published_time":"2007-01-17T02:56:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-10-04T21:47:09+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/montage.ipac.caltech.edu\/images\/rhooph_small.jpg"}],"author":"C.C. Petersen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@spacewriter","twitter_site":"@spacewriter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"C.C. Petersen","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/"},"author":{"name":"C.C. Petersen","@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/87ed05bea90dffaadf564821829edae2"},"headline":"The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds","datePublished":"2007-01-17T02:56:31+00:00","dateModified":"2008-10-04T21:47:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/"},"wordCount":293,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/87ed05bea90dffaadf564821829edae2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/montage.ipac.caltech.edu\/images\/rhooph_small.jpg","articleSection":["astronomy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/","url":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/","name":"The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds - The Spacewriter's Ramblings","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/montage.ipac.caltech.edu\/images\/rhooph_small.jpg","datePublished":"2007-01-17T02:56:31+00:00","dateModified":"2008-10-04T21:47:09+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/montage.ipac.caltech.edu\/images\/rhooph_small.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/montage.ipac.caltech.edu\/images\/rhooph_small.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2007\/01\/16\/the-wonderful-beauty-of-starbirth-regions-and-molecular-clouds\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Wonderful Beauty of Starbirth Regions and Molecular Clouds"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/","name":"The Spacewriter's Ramblings","description":"Exploring Science and the Cosmos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/87ed05bea90dffaadf564821829edae2"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/87ed05bea90dffaadf564821829edae2","name":"C.C. Petersen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f8ff49b69797b4c7108aa81332515e4?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f8ff49b69797b4c7108aa81332515e4?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"C.C. Petersen"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"description":"I am a science writer and media producer specializing in astronomy and space science content. This blog contains news and views about these topics."}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWJJ-bc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":695,"href":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions\/695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}