Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 308 it lies some 5,200 light-years away in the constellation Canis Major and covers over 2/3 degree on the sky (compared with 1/2 degree for the Full Moon). That corresponds to a diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star itself, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright blue one near the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase of massive star evolution. Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about 70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured in the expansive image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms mapped to bluish hues (text adapted from APOD). Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (210m) OIII (450m) R (130m) G (90m) B (130m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia
This is the high latitude molecular cloud MBM 159, which is located at a distance of about 220 pc and may form part of the Aquila rift. Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - L (450m) R (90m) G (90m) B (150m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia
Young star cluster M16 is surrounded by natal clouds of cosmic dust and glowing gas also known as The Eagle Nebula. This image of the region includes fantastic shapes made famous in well-known Hubble Space Telescope close-ups of the starforming complex. Described as elephant trunks or Pillars of Creation, dense, dusty columns rising near the center are light-years in length but are gravitationally contracting to form stars. Energetic radiation from the cluster stars erodes material near the tips, eventually exposing the embedded new stars. Extending from the upper left edge of the nebula is another dusty starforming column known as the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. M16 and the Eagle Nebula lie about 7,000 light-years away, an easy target for binoculars or small telescopes in a nebula rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake) (text adapted from APOD). Apo TEC140 (140/f7.2) - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (310m) OIII (590m) R (300m) G (240m) B (310m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia
