Iris Nebula features

[MattJenko]

Hi,

I have done some reprocessing of my Iris Nebula data and have noticed a little feature I would like some help understanding. It is the little star at about 10:30 from the central nebula star and it has some pretty straight lines giving a sideways butterfly type appearance immediately to the left of a dark area. There are some suspiciously linear features here. I have subsequently seen this on other images as well.

Does anyone know if this feature in the nebula is a result of this star (star formation of some kind ?), or is it part of the star's local environment, or just some quirk of alignment?

Thanks

Matt

[ollypenrice]

Do you mean this one, Matt?

If so I guess it could be

- a star lilluminating a patch of gas and dust by reflection but with an obscuring dust lane in the foreground cutting the reflection nebula in half.

- a relic of the star's formation. 

I'd put money on the star being the source of the light above and below it but not on much else. (It does have a slightly bipolar look). Hmmm...

Olly

[MattJenko]

Yes, that's the one, I should have circled it or something. It does look suspiciously like a gap where the star itself was formed, as the potential dust lane is perfectly aligned with it. I am hoping it is, as that would be quite frankly amazing to have captured with my own equipment (although I am not going to be upset with an interfering dust lane ). Maybe the star has just moved through the gas and accreted a channel of gas as it moves through,

[MarsG76]

Either way, what an excellent image....

[libraryman]

Good spot Matt, lovely image

Ray