This image of the Iris Nebula, in the constellation Cepheus, was taken by summer astrophysics research students Carlie Fowler ‘21, Emily Fabian ‘19, and Taylor Murch ‘22. The final color image was produced by Professor Thomas, but an earlier version was made by the pre-frosh student Taylor.
The image is a little over 1 degree wide in each direction, and even the brightest star in the image is too faint to see with the unaided eye. This type of nebula is often called a reflection nebula, which gets its blue color by scattered light, the same process that makes the Earth’s sky is blue. There are also dark patches of dust which can be hard to see in this image but are most easily spotted by a distinct lack of stars. The careful eye will also notice a green line toward the bottom of the image, which was caused by a satellite in Earth orbit passing through the field of view during the exposure in the green filter. A total of four 10-minute exposures in each of the three colors was taken on the same night.
The Iris Nebula is a known source of an optical fluorescence known as extended red emission. This emission thought to be caused by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are large organic molecules commonly found in incomplete combustion (including your backyard grill). Carlie’s summer project was to learn the photometric technique for detecting this emission, and proving that Clarkson’s Reynolds Observatory can search for this poorly understood phenomena.
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[A photo is available at: https://www.clarkson.edu/ sites/default/files/media/ image/2018-08/iris-nebula.png]