Jim, I also saw the E & F stars of theTrapezium last weekend, thanks to some coaching from Daniel, I didn't realize they were so subtle, I kept wondering why everyone was saying how easy it is to see them in the bigger dobs and I figured the seeing just wasn't good enough..... made me realize what a rookie I am, sure am enjoying the education though, wish you guys weren't so far away.... -----Original Message----- From: uvaa-bounces+louis.griffin=hill.af.mil@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:uvaa-bounces+louis.griffin=hill.af.mil@mailman.xmission.com]On Behalf Of Jim Gibson Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 8:30 AM To: List; UVAA List Subject: [UVAA] Re: [Utah-astronomy] Trapezium The other thing I like about the Trapezium photo is that if you look around the brightest star (I think it is the Alpha star, I am not sure) you can see several blue tadpoles like objects. My understanding is that these objects are Proplyds (short for proto planetary disks). All around the Trapezium is nebulosity. A couple of million years ago there were no stars but only thick nebulosity like you can see above the 'e' star. The dust in the nebulosity was like fine grains of sand or smaller. Over time the dust coalesced in to larger clumps and like a snow ball rolling down hill it continued to grow. Actually there were several snow balls all getting larger at the same time. For over a million years they grew from marbles to boulders, to planetoids, to planets and finely so large that the physics involved with gravity and impacting debris there was a nuclear fusion reaction igniting a star. All of the stars we see in Trapezium are about the same age, roughly about a million years old; babies. The Proplyds are the same age also but never achieved enough mass to become stars. Hidden within the dusty tadpole is a planet. The reason for the tadpole shape is that the Proplyds now stand in the blast of the radiation from the Alpha star and they are loosing material out the tail. You notice that every Proplyd has a tail away from the alpha star. In like manner, our group stand in the blast from the sun. What is protecting us is our magnetic field. Mars once had a magnetic field and evidently an atmosphere and seas or oceans. When mars lost it's magnetic field due to the cooling of the iron core and the cessation of flow or circulation with in the core, mars was subject to the radiation blast from the sun. Like the proplyds, Mars lost much of what it had on the surface of which we are now beginning to find out a few things through the Mars rovers. Sorry I had to gloss over some important details to try and keep this short. JG _____ Do you Yahoo!? <http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html> Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time.