NGC 6357 - a HII Region of Nebulosity in Scorpius (Niall MacNeill)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Scorpius (Sco) · Contains: HD157515 · HD157516 · HD157528 · HD157693 · HD319717 · HD319718 · HD319719 · HD319792 · NGC 6357 · the War and Peace Nebula

NGC 6357 - a HII Region of Nebulosity in Scorpius

NGC 6357 is a wonderful area of emission nebulosity in the constellation of Scorpius. The nebula contains many stars in the process of formation and wrapped in expanding bubbles of gas that their solar winds are pushing out. The nebulosity extends well outside my FOV of 0.5 degrees x 0.5 degrees, but this is a very detailed view on the inner part. The broader nebula is known variously as the Lobster Nebula and the War and Peace Nebula, which are ridiculous names if you ask me.

It is about 5900 light years away. This image is an LRGB image, but you can see how the Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) dominates and gives the image its rich red colour. There is a remarkably dark hole in the nebula, where I presume, very little hydrogen gas exists and it does show by contrast, the amount of gas even in the darker areas of the image towards the bottom.

Three very bright foreground stars punctuate the image and it is noteworthy how much the colour varies and that the central one is more white compared to the blue stars top and bottom.

Revision B and mouse over is the Hydrogen Alpha image of the same area, which shows the rich swirls of hydrogen gas that permeate the entire region.

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Description: Hydrogen Alpha image.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6102026
PixInsight job	LO22B4WWFCVNI8U0IRD30L0UX0ZLVSOL
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	17h25m05s.368
RA (top/left)	17h26m21s.782
RA (top/right)	17h23m51s.340
RA (bottom/right)	17h23m48s.651
RA (bottom/left)	17h26m20s.450

Dec (center)	-34°21′49″.10
Dec (top/left)	-34°06′25″.12
Dec (top/right)	-34°05′59″.99
Dec (bottom/right)	-34°37′07″.28
Dec (bottom/left)	-34°37′35″.40

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NGC 6357 - a HII Region of Nebulosity in Scorpius

NGC 6357 - a HII Region of Nebulosity in Scorpius

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NGC 6357 - a HII Region of Nebulosity in Scorpius

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