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The Seagull Nebula complex
The Seagull Nebula complex
Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2, Giuseppe Donatiello
View of the evocative and colourful star formation region called Seagull Nebula, IC 2177, on Monoceros (The Unicorn) and Canis Major (The Great Dog) bolders. This view was created from RGB colorized plates of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
RA: 07h 04m 25s Dec: −10° 27.3'
IC 2177 is a region of nebulosity that lies along the border between the constellations Monoceros and Canis Major. It is a roughly circular HII region centered on the Be star HD 53367. HD 53367 is a young star with twenty times the mass of our Sun. It is classified as a Be star, which are a type of B star with prominent hydrogen emission lines in its spectrum.
This cloud of gas and dust is located about 3,700 light-years away from Earth.
The radiation from the young stars causes the surrounding hydrogen gas to glow with a rich red color and become an HII region. HII regions are so named as they consist of ionized hydrogen (H) in which the electrons are no longer bound to protons. HI is the term used for un-ionized, or neutral, hydrogen. The red glow from HII regions occurs because the protons and electrons recombine and in the process emit energy at certain well-defined wavelengths or colors. One such prominent transition (called hydrogen alpha, or H-alpha) leads to the strong red color.
Within the nebular complex Sh2-292 there are some open clusters and areas of ongoing star formation, particularly along the defined edge.
The Seagull Nebula complex
The Seagull Nebula complex
Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2, Giuseppe Donatiello
View of the evocative and colourful star formation region called Seagull Nebula, IC 2177, on Monoceros (The Unicorn) and Canis Major (The Great Dog) bolders. This view was created from RGB colorized plates of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
RA: 07h 04m 25s Dec: −10° 27.3'
IC 2177 is a region of nebulosity that lies along the border between the constellations Monoceros and Canis Major. It is a roughly circular HII region centered on the Be star HD 53367. HD 53367 is a young star with twenty times the mass of our Sun. It is classified as a Be star, which are a type of B star with prominent hydrogen emission lines in its spectrum.
This cloud of gas and dust is located about 3,700 light-years away from Earth.
The radiation from the young stars causes the surrounding hydrogen gas to glow with a rich red color and become an HII region. HII regions are so named as they consist of ionized hydrogen (H) in which the electrons are no longer bound to protons. HI is the term used for un-ionized, or neutral, hydrogen. The red glow from HII regions occurs because the protons and electrons recombine and in the process emit energy at certain well-defined wavelengths or colors. One such prominent transition (called hydrogen alpha, or H-alpha) leads to the strong red color.
Within the nebular complex Sh2-292 there are some open clusters and areas of ongoing star formation, particularly along the defined edge.