Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  NGC 6883
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WR 134, Gary Imm
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WR 134

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WR 134, Gary Imm
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WR 134

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Description

This object is a Wolf-Rayet nebula located 6000 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus. The nebula is 50 light years across and its apparent size to us is about the size of our full moon.

Wolf-Rayet nebulae are one of my favorite DSO types because of their strong nebula signals that take the form of fantastic spherical shell shapes. Other Wolf-Rayet nebulae include the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635), the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888), Thor's Helmet (NGC 2359), and the Gourd Nebula (Sh2-308). This nebula looks very much like a portion of the Gourd Nebula.

Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are very hot massive stars which produce powerful stellar winds, resulting in these fantastic nebula shapes. There are two Wolf-Rayet stars in this vicinity, WR 134 (the brightest white star near image center) and WR 135 (just off the top of the image). Despite the fact that this object is named after WR 134, both of these stars have been identified as possibly being the source of the nebula in this image.

It is interesting to me that hydrogen (red) is present throughout the image while oxygen (cyan) is present only in the Wolf-Rayet shell. The well defined oxygen shock wave boundaries, with crisp arcs that define the shell edge, contrast with the flowing curtains of hydrogen.

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WR 134, Gary Imm