Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  NGC 7023  ·  VdB139
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Iris Nebula, Rick Veregin
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Iris Nebula

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Iris Nebula, Rick Veregin
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Iris Nebula

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Description

The Iris Nebula is a reflection nebula, the blue a result of Rayleigh scattering from dust grains much smaller than the wavelengths of visual light. Our sky is blue by the same mechanism, as is the "sky" around this nebula. Unlike our sky, the Iris nebula is 1300 light-years away and six-light years across, and lit by a bright and very young blue star, a mere 5,500 years old, not like our middle age, Sol, which is about 4.6 billion years old. It is because of this star's youth that it has so much dust around it, radiation pressure has yet to blow it all away--so see it while you can. The nebula also includes dark areas of cold gas and dust, and a reddish photoluminescence that is understood to be from UV excitation of organic materials in the nebula.

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Iris Nebula, Rick Veregin