      APOD: 2017 September 25 - Massive Shell Expelling Star G79 29 0 46

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
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                              2017 September 25
                                      [2]
                  Massive Shell-Expelling Star G79.29+0.46
Image Credit: NASA [3] , Spitzer Space Telescope [4] , WISE [5] ; Processing &
                        License [6]  : Judy Schmidt [7]

Explanation: Stars this volatile are quite rare. Captured in the midst of dust
clouds and visible to the right and above center is massive G79.29+0.46 [8] ,
one of less than 100 luminous blue variable [9]  stars (LBVs) currently known
in our Galaxy. LBVs expel shells of gas and may lose even the mass of Jupiter
[10]  over 100 years. The star, itself bright and blue, is shrouded in dust
and so not seen in visible light. The dying star appears green and surrounded
by red shells, though, in this mapped-color infrared picture [11]  combining
images from NASA's Spitzer Space Observatory [12]  and NASA's Wide-Field
Infrared Survey Explorer [13] . G79.29+0.46 is located [14]  in the
star-forming Cygnus X [15] region [16]  of our Galaxy. Why G79.29+0.46 [17]
is so volatile, how long it will remain in the LBV phase, and when it will
explode [18]  in a supernova [19]  is not known.

                  Free Download: The 2018 APOD Calendar [20]
                Tomorrow's picture: a farewell to saturn [21]

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1709/CygnusXzoom_SpitzerWiseSchmidt_1775.jpg
  [3] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [4] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/main/index.html
  [5] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/main/index.html
  [6] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
  [7] http://geckzilla.com/about
  [8]
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2016/09/27/
judy_schmidt_image_of_the_dust_complex_cyg_x.html
  [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_blue_variable
  [10] ap170529.html
  [11] https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/28871497671/
  [12] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/main/index.html
  [13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide-field_Infrared_Survey_Explorer
  [14] ap120517.html
  [15] https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/cygnusX/
  [16] https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/28314613744/
  [17] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.440.1391A
  [18] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JduQrZAEHX8
  [19] https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.1519
  [20] https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/fap/APOD_Calendar_2018_300dpi.pdf
  [21] ap170926.html
  [22] ap170924.html
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  [33] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
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  [35] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
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