NGC 281

NGC 281 is an emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia, which is 9500 light years away from Earth. The fog is presented in the index catalog as IC 11 and is colloquially referred to as Pac -Man Nebula for its resemblance to the famous eponymous video game protagonist, especially in the English-speaking world. In NGC 281 the open cluster IC 1590 is embedded, whose stars are scattered around the center of the nebula. The brightest member of IC 1590, the multiple star system BD 55 ° 191 (HD 5005 ), the ionizing source of the nebula. The mist also contains several Bok globules, in which by infrared recordings signs of star formation could be detected.

NGC 281 was discovered on 16 November 1881 by American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard.