AI & Astronomy Imagery Exhibit

North Star: Polaris and Surrounding Dust

Astronomy Picture of the Day: January 14, 2025

Composite photo of Polaris, the North Star. It appears as a bright blue star at the center of the photo and is surrounded by wisps of a pale nebula. Other stars peak through the nebula. — Image Credit & Copyright: Davide Coverta

APOD Explanation: Why is Polaris called the North Star? First, Polaris is the nearest bright star toward the north spin axis of the Earth. Therefore, as the Earth turns, stars appear to revolve around Polaris, but Polaris itself always stays in the same northerly direction -- making it the North Star. Since no bright star is near the south spin axis of the Earth, there is currently no bright South Star. Thousands of years ago, Earth's spin axis pointed in a slightly different direction so that Vega was the North Star. Although Polaris is not the brightest star on the sky, it is easily located because it is nearly aligned with two stars in the cup of the Big Dipper. Polaris is near the center of the five-degree wide featured image, a digital composite of hundreds of exposures that brings out faint gas and dust of the Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN) all over the frame. The surface of Cepheid Polaris slowly pulsates, causing the famous star to change its brightness by a few percent over the course of a few days.

AI Interpretations

AI Generated Description

The image depicts a stunning view of deep space featuring a bright blue star at its center, radiating a soft glow. Surrounding the star is an intricate network of wispy interstellar dust and gas, forming a diffuse nebula. The nebula is primarily grayish with subtle shades of blue and brown, creating a rich texture that contrasts with the starry background. The field is densely populated with numerous stars of varying brightness and color, ranging from white to warm orange hues, scattered across the image. The intricate details of the nebula and the shimmering stars create a mesmerizing cosmic scene. The name "Davide Coverta" appears in the lower-right corner, likely crediting the astrophotographer. The bright blue star in the center of this image appears to be Rigel, also known as Beta Orionis. It is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and is located in the constellation Orion. This particular image shows Rigel illuminating the surrounding dust clouds, which are part of a faint reflection nebula. The intricate details and faint structure of the surrounding interstellar medium, often referred to as the IC 2118 Nebula or Witch Head Nebula, suggest this interpretation. Rigel is a supergiant star and plays a significant role in lighting up the surrounding dust.

AI Generated Images

A bright blue-white star radiates intense yellow light creating a starburst effect, set against a field of stars. A secondary blue star, just to the right of the first star, emminates with blue light.

AI Generated with Juggernaut XL V9

A bright blue star emits emits blue light, gas, and dust in a star shape pattern. A secondary red star has a halo of red light, gas, and dust that clashes with the blue gas and dust of the first star. A third blue star sits just to the right of the blue star, but without a gas and ddust halo. A fourth bright yellow star is above the scene, and smaller stars fill the background.

AI Generated with Juggernaut XL V9

A dark elongated core surrounded by bright colors spirals into a swirl of stars, dust, and gas with a luminous structure, featuring a shades of gold, teal, and brown. Set against a backdrop filled with distant stars.

AI Generated with SD PhotoReal Photo V2

A spiral of teal, blue, and green fills the image, swirling around a small yet bright core. Distant stars of many colors fill the dark background.

AI Generated with SD PhotoReal Photo V2

A hazy expanse of space filled with pale gas and dust, with several bright stars in pale colors. Many small stars are scattered in the background. At the top right are a pair of stars, one purple and one pink.

AI Generated with OpenJourney v4

Four distinct white stars surrounded by a haze of gas, dust, and light among a scattering of small white stars, all against a black and grey background.

AI Generated with Stable Diffusion v1.4

Discussion

When being provided the original image, Chat GPT was unable to correctly identify the central star, and claimed that it was Rigel. It was able to correctly guess that the photographer is Davide Coverta based on the text found on the lower right hand corner of the full image. Interestingly, it is also able to identify that the star is surrounded by a dust cloud. However, based on its initial assumption that the central star is Rigel, Chat GPT must conclude that the dust cloud is part of the Witch Head Nebula, even though if it had compared the provided image with pictures of Rigel, it could learn that the nebulae are very different in structure and relational position.

Next we provided the original scientific explanation to Invoke and asked it to generate a series of images based on the text using four different models. The results vary drastically, highlighting that these models really are only as good as the data they were trained with. Most of the models seem unequipped to generate images of realistic nebulae with the provided description, instead focusing on the bright central star. But even then, the AI image generators continue to add secondary, tertiary, or even more bright stars to the image.