Gum Nebula

The Gum Nebula ( Gum 12) is an emission nebula located in the southern constellations Vela and Puppis. With an apparent diameter of 40 °, it is the fog with the largest angular extent in the night sky.

Details

The nebula was named after its discoverer, the Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, who published his discovery in 1955 in his work A study of diffuse southern H -alpha nebulae ( study of diffuse southern H -alpha nebula ).

Astronomical context

The Gum Nebula has an approximately spherical expansion, with the us nearer edge in 450 light years away is while facing away from the us border is 1500 light years away from us. It is believed that the Gum Nebula is already a strongly extended and about 20 km / s further expanding supernova remnant, whose origin lies in an explosion that dates back over a million years.

Inside the nebula lies the Vela OB2 association whose hot stars excite the nebula to glow. In addition, the object contains the Vela supernova remnant and the Vela pulsar, both with an age of 10,000 years, significantly younger than the surrounding Gum Nebula, however.

  • NGC 2451
  • NGC 2477
  • RCW 27 ( Gum 14)
  • RCW 33 ( Gum 17)
  • RCW 38 ( Gum 23)
  • RCW 40 ( Gum 25)
  • γ Velorum
  • λ Velorum
  • δ Velorum
  • ζ Puppis

Observation

Due to its southern location of the Gum Nebula from Central Europe can not be observed. From the southern hemisphere it is difficult to see because of its large surface area and the resulting weak relative brightness of stars or only astro photographically observed.

Declination Distance Light-year Stellar association Delta Velorum Astrophotography
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