Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Gemini (Gem)  ·  Contains:  13 Gem)  ·  7 Gem)  ·  Calx (μ Gem  ·  Gem A  ·  IC 443  ·  IC 444  ·  Part of the constellation Gemini (Gem)  ·  Praepes (η Gem  ·  Tejat Posterior  ·  Tejat Prior  ·  The star 12 Gem  ·  The star 6 Gem  ·  The star Propus  ·  The star Tejat
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Jellyfish Nebula, Chris Kagy
Jellyfish Nebula
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Jellyfish Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Jellyfish Nebula, Chris Kagy
Jellyfish Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

Jellyfish Nebula

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Description

This is the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443, or Sharpless 248), a supernova remnant in our southern sky that is about 5000 light years away, in the constellation Gemini. Its age hasn't been pinned down, but its size is roughly 70 light years across. All supernovae remnants result from a big star that burned hot and fast and, when in ran out of fuel, exploded. We're seeing the result of that explosion. In this case, the yellow nebula is a combination of Hydrogen and Sulphur, and the red cloud to the left is mostly Hydrogen.

It's easy to toss out big numbers, like 5,000 light years, but they're hard to imagine. Here's a model to help. If our Solar System (Sun at the center, all the way out to Neptune) was shrunk to the size of a quarter, the Jellyfish Nebula would be just about 100 miles away and just about 1 3/4 miles across. Ponder that for a moment - how many quarters could fit along a 1 3/4 mile stretch of road? That's a lot of solar systems that could fit inside this thing.

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Jellyfish Nebula, Chris Kagy

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