Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Sagittarius (Sgr)  ·  Contains:  M 17  ·  NGC 6618  ·  Omega nebula
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M17,  The Swan Nebula, Steven Bellavia
M17,  The Swan Nebula
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M17, The Swan Nebula

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M17,  The Swan Nebula, Steven Bellavia
M17,  The Swan Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

M17, The Swan Nebula

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Description

M17, known as the Swan or the Omega nebula, is an H II region in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. Charles Messier catalogued it in 1764. It is located in the rich starfields of the Sagittarius area of the Milky Way

M17 is approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth and is 15 light-years in diameter. The cloud of interstellar matter of which this nebula is a part is roughly 40 light-years in diameter and has a mass of 30,000 solar masses.

It is considered one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions of our galaxy. Its local geometry is similar to the Orion Nebula except that it is viewed edge-on rather than face-on.

The open cluster NGC 6618 lies embedded in the nebulosity and causes the gases of the nebula to shine due to radiation from these hot, young stars; however, the actual number of stars in the nebula is much higher - up to 800, with 100 of spectral type earlier than B9, and 9 of spectral type O, plus over a thousand stars in formation on its outer regions. It is also one of the youngest clusters known, with an age of just 1 million years.

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M17,  The Swan Nebula, Steven Bellavia

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Nebulae