Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  16 omi01 CMa  ·  Sh2-308  ·  The star ο1CMa
SH2-308, Dean Carr
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SH2-308

SH2-308, Dean Carr
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SH2-308

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Description

Sharpless 2-308, sometimes called the ‘Gourd Nebula’, is a very large but faint cosmic bubble surrounding a Wolf-Rayet star named EZ Canis Major (the bright star in the middle). It is about 5,000 light years away and can be seen in the constellation of Canis Major.

Wolf-Rayet stars such as EZ Canis Major are rare, massive and luminous stars that have burnt off most of their hydrogen fuel and are undergoing nuclear fusion of elements such as helium in their cores to generate energy. The distinctive blue/green nebula represents a large but very faint cloud of ionised oxygen blown outward by the violent star.

The image was processed in PixInsight using a bicolor palette (Red = Ha, Green = 0.85xOIII+0.15xHa, Blue = OIII). It has been drizzle integrated to increase resolution to approx. 0.6 arcsec/pixel (from the native 1.2 arcsec/pixel)

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    SH2-308, Dean Carr
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    SH2-308, Dean Carr
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SH2-308, Dean Carr