Heart Nebula

The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula with an open cluster in the interior and is located in the constellation Cassiopeia.

Designations

  • By far the brightest region of the nebula was first discovered and cataloged as NGC object 896.
  • The open cluster contributes, among other things, the terms " Melotte 15 ", " Collinder 26 ", " Raab 11" and IC 1805. Latter is also sometimes used for the entire structure.
  • The gas mist alone has the name " Westerhout 4" (W 4 ).
  • The combination with a close lying next to something smaller emission nebula lead the trivial names "heart and soul nebula " ( " Heart and Soul nebulae" ).

Properties

The property is located about 7,500 light -years away in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way. The emission nebula of gas clouds and dark dust areas consists of plasma of ionized hydrogen and free electrons.

The reddish, foggy lots are lit by the stars of the open cluster. This group consists of several stars with a total of some 50 times the mass of the sun and other smaller and less bright stars. The pile included a small quasar, which was expelled millions of years ago.

Declination Light-year Intrinsic brightness New General Catalogue New General Catalogue#Index Catalogue Perseusarm List of NGC objects NGC 891
389900
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