August 19, 2024
The cosmos is full of spectacular things: ringed planets, exploding suns, rivers of stars across the night.
IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula
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APOD published August 19, 2024. Credit: Luis Romero Ventura. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. Cataloged as IC 5146, the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide. Soaring high in northern summer night skies, it's located some 4,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus). Like other star forming regions, it stands out in red, glowing, hydrogen gas excited by young, hot stars, and dust-reflected starlight at the edge of an otherwise invisible molecular cloud. In fact, the bright star found near the center of this nebula is likely only a few hundred thousand years old, powering the nebular glow as it clears out a cavity in the molecular cloud's star forming dust and gas. A 48-hour long integration resulted in this exceptionally deep color view tracing tantalizing features within and surrounding the dusty stellar nursery.
Image credit: Luis Romero Ventura