gjdonatiello
IC 5076
IC 5076
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello
IC 5076 is a beautiful and little known reflection nebula located at short distance from NGC 7000 (North America Nebula).
Probably it is precisely the bulky and popular neighbor that decrees the lack of attention.
We thus discover that the cloud is illuminated by the star HD 199478, a sixth magnitude class B blue supergiant (BlueSG). BlueSGs are very bright stars that are visible even millions of light years away. It is not said that the nebula is a legacy of its formation and, presumably, the two objects have just crossed along their orbits in the Milky Way, similar to the Pleiades crossing a molecular cloud.
IC 5076
IC 5076
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello
IC 5076 is a beautiful and little known reflection nebula located at short distance from NGC 7000 (North America Nebula).
Probably it is precisely the bulky and popular neighbor that decrees the lack of attention.
We thus discover that the cloud is illuminated by the star HD 199478, a sixth magnitude class B blue supergiant (BlueSG). BlueSGs are very bright stars that are visible even millions of light years away. It is not said that the nebula is a legacy of its formation and, presumably, the two objects have just crossed along their orbits in the Milky Way, similar to the Pleiades crossing a molecular cloud.