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Old 16-02-2010, 06:04 PM
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Paddy (Patrick)
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Join Date: Jun 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcles View Post


As for nowadays, the red-coloured tendrils that were once the outer envelope of the red-supergiant (mainly ionised Hydrogen & Helium) are not really visually observable unless you have a giant telescope. They record very well on film and CCD that are much more sensitive to H-Alpha emission.

The part that is more readily visible is the slightly smaller-sized, diffuse, blue emission which is by and large powered by synchrotron radiation. Synchrotron radiation is produced by electrons being accellerated within the strong magnetic fields (pulsars have extreme magnetic fields) to velocities close to c.


Best,

Les D

P.S 990 -- nearly there!!
Very interesting - this explains a lot!

PS Looking forward to 1000+ of your posts - they are all gems.
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