Thursday, March 24, 2011

APOD 3.7

NGC 6914 Nebulae

This extremely colorful picture reveals the stars, dust, and gas found in NGC 6914.  It is a complex of nebulae.  It lies toward the northern constellation Cygnus and the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, about 6,000 light-years away.  Within the 1/2 degree wide field shown, both reddish hydrogen emission nebulae and dusty blue reflection nebulae can be seen.  This view spans about 50 light-years.  The region's atomic hydrogen gas is ionized by ultraviolet radiation from the massive, hot, young stars.  This produces the red glow seen.  The dusty blue color is formed by blue starlight reflected by the dusty clouds.  This amazing picture was processed to reveal both colors!

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