/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.1806676]

Gentlemen, I have a bit of a mystery:

NGC 1554. Struve's Lost Nebula

WTF is this shit. Where did it go?

WIkipedia says:
>...which was discovered by the German-Russian astronomer Otto Wilhelm von Struve and confirmed by Heinrich Louis d'Arrest[1]. Dreyer describes it as

> !!! var, S, R, Nn = *13

>which in NGC:s encoding is expanded to a magnificent or otherwise interesting object, variable, small, round, nucleus north of a star of the 13:th magnitude

>The identification is uncertain: many sources think it is related to NGC 1555, Hind's Variable Nebula, but at NGC 1554:s coordinates, (epoch J2000) 04h 22m 00.0s +19° 36′ 00″ there is neither a nebula nor a star.

So can anyone tell me in what way it can be related to NGC 1555, (which is a type T-Tauri variable star and a small dense field of nebulous 'something' surrounding it)? are they saying that 1555 went dim one day this was a reflection of that? Or perhaps there was a star or something else there that just snuffed out one day instead of going nova or supernova and how is that possible?

There seems to be precious little other information about it in a googlesearch. Anybody know where I can get more info?

Any thoughts on this at all, /sci/? I find it fascinating.

Pic related, it's that general area.

[Anonymous No.1806713]

This is NGC 1554.

[Anonymous No.1806717]

This is NGC 1555.

[Anonymous No.1806768]

shrug

[Anonymous No.1806779]

>Nebulosity reported by Otto Wilhelm Struve in 1868, and verified by Heinrich d'Arrest, in the vicinity of Hind's Variable Nebula (NGC 1555) in Taurus. Although given a separate catalogue number (NGC 1554) by Dreyer, it was not seen by observers a decade after Struve's discovery, nor has it been seen since. Modern sources, such as Sky Catalogue 2000.0 group NGC 1554 and NGC 1555 together as a single object, although 1554 is not visible on the Palomar Sky Survey plates. At the reported position of the Lost Nebula is a magnitude 14 star, 4' west-southwest of T Tauri. It appears that the Lost Nebula may have been a transient portion of the reflection nebula complex in this part of the sky.

[Anonymous No.1806780]

Aliens finished building their Dyson Sphere around it while we were observing it.

... I wish : /

[Anonymous No.1806804]

>transient portion of the reflection nebula complex in this part of the sky

this means they don't know either and are just speculating.

[Anonymous No.1806934]

bump for genuine intellectual curiosity

[Anonymous No.1806955]

Yeah, I'm clueless too, the shape almost looks directional, like something (SN) exploded towards the right.

*shrug*

[Amazo-tan Ketchup !gOXa6z1V32 No.1806994]

Let me put it bluntly:

We don't know as much about universe as we vainly believe that we do and we will never know everything.

[Anonymous No.1807062]

i found a better contrasted picture, you can see that there is indeed a very dark diffuse nebula that surrounds the region east of 1555 extending to the star near the last reported position of 1554.

It's possible that a highly irregular Herbig-Haro object (which is a kind of irregular variable nebula formed from new stars that may be related to planetary accretion disks) brightened and then dimmed from stellar fusion gone wrong over a 10-40 year period during the mid 19th century. The fact that telescopic observation was just coming into it's own as a hobby for some curious well-to-do individuals of the era might also have something to do with the lack of anyone noticing the thing before then.

>>1806994
well said.