Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  B144  ·  LBN 168  ·  LBN 171  ·  LDN 847  ·  Sh2-101
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Tulip Nebula, Jeff Reitzel
Powered byPixInsight

The Tulip Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Tulip Nebula, Jeff Reitzel
Powered byPixInsight

The Tulip Nebula

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

This years version of Sharpless 2-101 The Tulip Nebula. This is such an active region in Cygnus. The Tulip itself is the result of strong emissions from hot O-type stars erupting through the surrounding gas and dust. Just to the right of the Tulip there are two near perfect semi-circles. One is dark and the other blue. In this area is the first stellar mass black hole ever discovered. Powered by jets from the black hole's accretion disc is Cygnus X-1, a microquasar that is one of the strongest X-ray sources observed from Earth. These jets create the blue shockwave seen in the image while the darker semi-circle is material being drawn towards that immense gravity well. I come back to this region from time to time as it is one of my favorites and likely one of the most active regions we can observe. I find it a difficult target to get great detail looking through the dense star field of our northern Milky Way.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

The Tulip Nebula, Jeff Reitzel