News in Science

Prawn nebula gets amateur touch

Helping hand An amateur astrophotographer in Australia has helped produce the sharpest image ever taken of a massive star forming region called the Prawn Nebula.

Martin Pugh was asked by astronomers European Southern Observatory (ESO) to provide image data of the spectacular nebula.

Located in the constellation of Scorpius, the Prawn Nebula is more than 250 light years wide, and filled with clouds of mostly hydrogen gas and dense dark patches of dust.

These clouds contain countless new born hot stars, shining blue-white, and emitting intense radiation, especially in ultraviolet wavelengths.

This radiation strips electrons from hydrogen atoms, ionizing the gas. When the electrons and hydrogen protons recombine later, the energy released causes the hydrogen gas to glow bright red.

Despite its huge size, the Prawn Nebula is often overlooked because most of its light is emitted at ultraviolet wavelengths, which the human eye can't detect.

The new picture is one of the largest single images ever released by the organisation.

Full picture

Astronomers use specific filters to isolate narrow wavelengths of light, which tell them about the characteristics of the stars their looking at.

After seeing Martin Pugh's images of the Prawn Nebula on his website, ESO contacted him about collaboration.

"They wanted to produce a colour image from this data they have, so they approached me to see if I would give them my colour data," says Pugh.

"Amateurs do not get approached very often to contribute to that level of professional imagery, so when they contacted me I was absolutely delighted."

Pugh jumped at the opportunity and quickly provided his data for the project.

"I did some processing on it, and the ESO guys did some processing on it as well," says Pugh.

Starry eyes

To describe Pugh's passion for astrophotography as a hobby is an understatement.

When he's not working his day job with the Department of Defence, Pugh's photographing the night skies with a 12.5-inch telescope housed in its own observatory in his backyard in the rural town of Yass in southern New South Wales.

He has a larger 17-inch telescope in an observatory in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, which he operates remotely over the internet.

The new combined image forms part of a detailed public survey of a large part of the Milky Way searching for new objects such as young stars and planetary nebulae, as well as providing some of the best images ever taken of star formation regions.

"I would never have thought that you get data incorporated with a 2.4-metre telescope and a 12.5-inch telescope sounds a bit ridiculous, but that's how it's worked out," says Pugh.