Astronomy Picture of the Day

NASA ^ | 3/5/09 | Neil Fleming, David Plesko

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IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Neil Fleming, David Plesko

Explanation: Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. Cataloged as IC 5146, the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide, located some 4,000 light years away toward the northern constellation Cygnus. Like other star forming regions, it stands out in red, glowing, hydrogen gas excited by young, hot stars and blue, dust-reflected starlight at the edge of an otherwise invisible molecular cloud. In fact, the bright star near the center of this nebula is likely only a few hundred thousand years old, powering the nebular glow as it clears out a cavity in the molecular cloud's star forming dust and gas. This exceptionally deep color view of the Cocoon Nebula traces tantalizing features within and surrounding the dusty stellar nursery.

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[Rummyfan]

...the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide, located some 4,000 light years away toward the northern constellation Cygnus.

Certainly makes one feel insignificant....

[cripplecreek]

Certainly makes one feel insignificant....

No kidding. Consider that the Voyager probes were launched more than 30 years ago and I don't believe they've even managed to get light days from the sun as of yet.

[Robert DeLong]

Sweet

[ßuddaßudd]

..4,000 light years away toward the northern constellation Cygnus.
Great, now I have the tune of Cygnus X-1 going through my head....

[DYngbld]

That would take nearly 4 years at a Warp factor 8 :)

A light day is 16,070,400,000 miles.

In February Voyage 1 was 6.5 billion miles away.

It is amazing how small we are in the universe.

[DYngbld]

That was February 1998.

[VeniVidiVici]

I was looking for pics on the 'net related to this and came across this guy's photos.

Some of his shots are just incredible.

[siamesecats]

So beautiful!

Thanks for sharing.

[sig226]

Good stuff. The aurora photos got me. I really have to see that some day.