Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  NGC 7538
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ngc 7538, astroeyes
ngc 7538
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ngc 7538

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ngc 7538, astroeyes
ngc 7538
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ngc 7538

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Description

Not far from the more famous Bubble Nebula, NGC 7538 is an emission and reflection nebula found in Cepheus. It contains the largest known protostar and lies 2.8 kiloparsecs distant.

The age of it's newly formed stars is around 1-4 million years but because of the dusty region the nebula lies in it is usually studied in infra-red, or longer, wavelengths not available to amateurs.

One newly formed protostar, NGC 7538S is collapsing to a core of around 100 solar masses. It has a rotating accretion disc and should eventually form a high mass B class star.

The massive star forming region known as MM1 contains around 30 solar masses and will probably form an O class star.

It has been discovered that other star forming regions within NGC 7538 are not forming by self-induced collapse, because neither the pressure or temperature within these regions is high enough. Possibly their formation has been initiated by shock waves or magnetic fields.

There is a lot of professional research going on around NGC 7538, it is a shame it is so often ignored by amateurs.

My image, taken Sept '14, shows the major features of the nebula only.

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ngc 7538, astroeyes