PacMan Nebula NGC281 in good detail (Dave Rust)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas) · Contains: HD5005 · IC 1590 · LBN 615 · LBN 616 · NGC 281 · Sh2-184

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PacMan Nebula NGC281 in good detail

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

Powered byPixInsight

PacMan Nebula NGC281 in good detail

Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

Cold winter nights mean it's time for Celestial Video Games.

That's right—It's the PacMan nebula!

PacMan (NGC281) is tiny in our sky and located in the northern constellation Cassiopeia. It's in the next spiral arm over in our galaxy...about 6500 light years away.

Edward Emerson Barnard, of Barnard Space Catalog fame, found this sucker back in 1883...which is about as old as PacMan seems to modern players. Who knows what ol' Ed called it back then.

When stars explode, the material ejected first often condenses immediately into new stars. So it's not hard to find ground zero, with its tight-knit cluster of blue stars. Also incriminating are all of those gaseous "chimneys" pointing to the same location. Those columns form when clumps of gas collapse (sometimes so densely as to form new stars) and the outward expanding gasses continuing to pass by are diverted by the new mass's gravity and radiation.

The whole thing is lit up and glowing red from the new stars, which ionize the ample amount of hydrogen, causing it to become fluorescent.

I love the darker "shrapnel" flying outward, too. This is just an all-round fun nebula!

And the story doesn't end there. Scientists have determined that there might have been an earlier supernova in about the same place, which would explain the elongated shape and some of the dark matter in front.

So cuddle up and stay warm this winter knowing the Greek gods of the sky are engaging in a little "waka-waka!"

Tonight's homage to electronic games in space was processed to 𝘔𝘦𝘭𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳, by the Lord Gustavsen Trio.

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8703174
PixInsight job	BRLRJBNEXQIXYEJM8OH59NX08TON4JK9
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	00h52m49s.924
RA (top/left)	00h54m13s.108
RA (top/right)	00h51m33s.332
RA (bottom/right)	00h51m27s.957
RA (bottom/left)	00h54m05s.333

Dec (center)	+56°37′37″.73
Dec (top/left)	+56°53′48″.00
Dec (top/right)	+56°54′23″.99
Dec (bottom/right)	+56°21′23″.29
Dec (bottom/left)	+56°20′48″.70

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PacMan Nebula NGC281 in good detail

PacMan Nebula NGC281 in good detail

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Image Index:

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PacMan Nebula NGC281 in good detail

PacMan Nebula NGC281 in good detail

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