vdB 101, 102, 133, LDN 1515, 1717, 1719, Barnard 41
OTA: Star-Fire 175 (f/8)
Camera: FLI - PL16070AE
Observatory: Deep Sky West
EXPOSURES:
Red: 20 x 900 seconds
Blue: 16 x 900
Green: 22 x 900
Lum: 20 x 900
Total exposure 19.5 hours
Image Width: ~1.3 deg
Processed by Alex Woronow (2019) using PixInsight, AuroraHDR, Matlab, StarTools, SWT
The dust lanes of vdB 102 lie at the northern end of the constellation Scorpius The blue nebula shines by reflected light from a pair of star groups, each consisting of two stars. They can be seen near the center of this image with the dust lanes spanning the region between them, then on toward the bottom of the image to another bright star. One of the stars (see red label in the image below) is a “peculiar star” of class Ap: a giant “Silicon star” with a surface temperature of about 13,000K.
Link to larger view
Silicon burning is a very brief phase nuclear-fusion reaction that occur in massive stars. Silicon burning is the final stage of fusion for massive stars that have already gone through the hydrogen, helium, carbon, neon and oxygen burning processes. Silicon burning begins when gravitational contraction raises the star's core temperature to 2.7–3.5 billion Kelvin. The exact temperature depends on the stellar mass. When a star has completed the silicon-burning phase, no further fusion is possible. The star catastrophically collapses and may explode in a Type II supernova.
(Source: largely Wikipedia)
HTML thumbnail/image link for annotated image shown above :
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