Nov 17, 2024
AE Aurigae. Flaming Star
seen from Argentina
seen from India
seen from Tajikistan
seen from Kazakhstan
seen from United States
seen from South Africa
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Kazakhstan
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Türkiye
seen from South Africa
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Australia
AE Aurigae. Flaming Star
The Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405 // Alex Linde
This nebula is lit up by the star at the center of this image, AE Aurigae. This star is a blue-white giant star about 1,300 light years away. It is also an irregular variable star that happens to be a runaway star, ejected from the star cluster at the heart of the Orion Nebula!
Image of IC 405 aka the Flaming Star Nebula This is an emission (the red part) and reflection (the blue part) nebula. It's relatively bright for a nebula with visual magnitude of +6.
The bright star at the center of the blue reflection nebula is AE Aurigae, it's the star responsible for the ionisation of the gas in this nebula. AE Aurigae is what's known as a runaway star, those are star that moves at high speed compared to their surrounding environment. They are the result of gravitational interaction between stars or stars being ejected by nearby supernovae. In the case of AE Aurigae, it was probably ejected due to gravitational interaction, its path has been traced back to the Orion Nebula from which it was ejected about 2 million years ago.
The moon was nearly full and somewhat close by when I took the photos, so it was a bit tricky to process them. As a result, the reflection part of the nebula was not as visible as I would have liked but I think the overall result is not too bad.
Image taken using a CarbonStar 150/600 newtonian telescope with a 0.95 coma corrector, ZWO ASI294 monochrome camera. 6x300s image for each colour filter (LRGB) and 12x300s for the Ha filter, total imaging time 3h, stacking and processing done in PixInsight.
Tried applying the Ortonglow script in PixInsight to give the nebula a bit more depth, but I don't like the halos it gave around the bright stars on the left.
IC 405 - Flaming Star Nebula & AE Aurigae
AE Aurigae
AE Aurigae is a bright star located within the Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405. The nebula is located about 1,500 light years away towards the constellation Auriga, the Charioteer. It is about 5 light years across.
AE Aurigae emits strong enough light to strip electrons from nearby atoms. When the electrons recombine with their protons, they emit light in the color characteristic of their element and create a bright emission nebula. The nebula also contains clouds of hydrogen gas laced with thick carbon dust.
Image and information from NASA.
The Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405 // swedishhh
The "flaming star" is the blue, irregular variable star at the center, AE Aurigae.
The Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405 // sreilly24590
The star at the center of the nebula is AE Aurigae, an irregular variable star.
The Flaming Star Nebula, IC 405 // steller
The bright star at the center is AE Aurigae, a runaway star that is responsible for lighting up the surrounding gas and dust!