Infinite Space
The Rosette Nebula is not the only cosmic cloud of gas and dust to evoke the imagery of flowers -- but it is the most famous. At the edge of a large molecular cloud in Monoceros, some 5,000 light years away, the petals of this rose are actually a stellar nursery whose lovely, symmetric shape is sculpted by the winds and radiation from its central cluster of hot young stars.
Rose Nebula
The Rosette Nebula is not the only cosmic cloud of gas and dust to evoke the imagery of flowers -- but it is the most famous. At the edge of a large molecular cloud in Monoceros, some 5,000 light years away, the petals of this rose are actually a stellar nursery whose lovely, symmetric shape is sculpted by the winds and radiation from its central cluster of hot young stars.
What is it? The Rosette Nebula is a cloud of gas and dust about 130 light years in diameter, lying approximately 5000 light years from our Solar System in the direction of the constellation of Monoceros. The mass of the nebula is estimated at 10 thousand Solar masses, even though it is just a small part of a much larger region of gas and dust spanning the entire constellation. The Rosette would appear as large as the full Moon if it were visible to the eye, but it is so faint that visual observation is difficult even with telescopes. The hot bright stars in its center are easily visible, being point sources of light; but the diffuse light of the nebula requires photography with filters which block out all of the light of the night sky save for wavelengths emitted by gases in the nebula as they absorb the ultraviolet radiation pouring out of the stars which illuminate the nebula.
History...The Rosette Nebula itself is a part of the much larger Rosette Molecular Cloud, and is differentiated by its emission of light. It is further broken down into several smaller parts which have been assigned NGC numbers; 2237, 2238, 2239, and 2246. In the center of the nebula sits the open star cluster NGC 2244, fueling the extreme temperatures. This open cluster was discovered in 1690 by John Flamsteed, but the Rosette Nebula took much more effort to find. The various parts of the nebula were discovered by three different astronomers: John Herschel found 2239, Albert Marth found 2238, and Lewis Swift found 2237 and 2246.
|
Facts...The Rosette (or Rosetta) Nebula’s appearance in optical light resembles a rose flower or the rosette, the stylized flower design used in sculptural objects since ancient times, and the nebula was named after the design.
The nebula has earned the nickname the Skull because it also closely resembles the human skull. |
|