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M 16 - Eagle Nebula |
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Object description:
The Eagle Nebula Messier 16 in the constellation
Serpens is one of the largest and most famous nebulae of the Milky Way. This
active star born region is located at a distance of about 7000 light years. The
absolute extent of the shown nebula is about 140 light years. M 16 covers an
area of ??2 moon diameters in the sky.
The central part of the nebula
contains the central star cluster of young, hot stars with dark gas and dust
pillars, the famous "Pillars of Creation". The pillars contain a variety of in
the surrounding gas hidden, newborn stars. They can be viewed in
this fascinating image from the Hubble Telescope in highest
resolution.
In the lower left corner there is an extremely reddish star
called IRAS 18175-1408. It is a cool star of spectral type S with strong
absorption lines of zirconia. The B-V index of the star is about 3.5 mag,
probably the star's light is additionally reddened by interstellar gas and dust
clouds. |
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The
transparency of the atmosphere was not good at both days of imaging. The blue
channel of the image was very weak and made the processing difficult. The
spikes were inserted artificially. Click on the
image above for the object identification and a comparison with the size of the
Moon. |
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