2MASS H and K Images appear saturated

• by uvagomes

  What does it mean when the 2MASS K and H images get an almost Tye-Dye look to them. I am not sure if this fits the "Not Round in 2MASS" image classification or not. To me i think it is a good candidate but I am only about %60 confident.

  Posted February 9, 2014 5:27 PM

• by abans scientist, moderator

  The tie dye look is actually because the 2MASS images are filled with noise, like static on a TV set. Sometimes noise can be from actual background objects, sometimes from the detector itself. In the case of 2MASS images the dominant noise contribution comes from the detectors (i.e. the ccds of the cameras) on the telescopes.

  Check back with our blog soon! We will be explaining the different types of noise in astronomical images!

  Posted February 13, 2014 7:01 PM

• by abans scientist, moderator

  p.s. so that means you shouldn't believe any "structure" that is on the same level of brightness as the tie-dye noise streams

  Posted February 13, 2014 7:02 PM

• by uvagomes

  Thanks for the reply. So i am going with "Good Candidate" then for images like these in the future. Just trying to get it right so it helps you guys in the end, thanks for the info.

  Posted February 14, 2014 12:40 AM

• by biggsjrex moderator

  This image looks good, but does the SED suggest something other than a star- a quasar, maybe?

  Posted February 17, 2014 5:48 PM

• by jdebes scientist, admin

  Yes, the SED is not the "typical" debris disk style SED, and so my bias would be to suggest galaxy. That said, some YSOs can have 2MASS and WISE SEDs that look very flat.

  Posted February 18, 2014 10:48 AM