Aug 20, 2024
Butterfly with Crescent © cosmic_background
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Singapore
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Philippines
seen from Kazakhstan
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Japan
seen from Russia
seen from Japan
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from Mexico
seen from United Kingdom
Butterfly with Crescent © cosmic_background
The Crescent Nebula, NGC 6888 // John M
NGC 6888, The Crescent Nebula,
Credit: Roberto Colombari
Reprocessing old data. The Crescent Nebula NGC 6888 both with and without stars. An emission nebula 4,700 light-years away, and 25 light-years across, with a very windy star at the center. 1 light-year = 6 trillion or so miles!
Crescent Nebula
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks near NGC 6888
l Michael Jäger l Austria l Jan. 2024
NGC 6888 - the Crescent Nebula
The Crescent Nebula is a shell of ionized dust pushed out by the intense radiation expelled from a Wolf-Rayet star at its core. Deep in Cygnus, it's in a region filled with dense and bright clouds of ionized gases (hydrogen in red, oxygen in blue in this photo).
Shot at 450mm f/3 with a cooled IMX533 sensor. * 49x600" Ha (4.5nm) * 40x600" Oiii (4.5nm) * 10x180" R/G/B for natural color stars Edited in PixInsight.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
2006 July 6
NGC 6888: A Tricolor Starfield
Credit & Copyright: Don Goldman
Explanation: NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. Near the center of this intriguing widefield view of interstellar gas clouds and rich star fields of the constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away. The three color composite image was created by stacking exposures through narrow band filters that transmit the light from atoms in the clouds. Hydrogen is shown as green, sulfur as red, and oxygen as blue. NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136) and is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of our Sun's mass every 10,000 years. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its stellar life, this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion.
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
A service of: EUD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.