The Tulip in the Swan
From
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
Framing a bright emission region this telescopic view looks out along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy
toward the nebula rich constellation Cygnus the Swan.
Popularly called the Tulip Nebula the glowing cloud of
interstellar gas and dust is also found in the 1959
catalog by astronomer Stewart
Sharpless as
Sh2-101.
About 8,000 light-years distant the nebula is
understandably not the only cosmic cloud to evoke the imagery of flowers.
The complex and beautiful nebula is shown here in a
composite image that maps
emission from ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and
oxygen atoms into red, green, and blue colors.
Ultraviolet radiation from young, energetic O star HDE 227018 ionizes the atoms and powers the emission from the Tulip
Nebula. HDE 227018, is the bright star very near the blue arc at image center.
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| Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Joner, David Laney (West Mountain Observatory, BYU); Processing - Robert Gendler |