NGC7129 is a spectacular reflection nebula located within the constellation Cepheus. There’s a whole lot of phenomena present within this field! The source of energy causing the reflection nebula to shine is the open cluster located within the core. Deep red Herbig-Haro (HH) objects can be seen scattered above and below the core - an indication of the strong star formation occurring in this region. As protostars form, they eject a stream of energetic gas out of the top and bottom of the star’s axis of rotation; leading to the characteristic glowing red HH objects. Without a doubt, the most unique aspect of this nebula are the faint red bands that extend vertically upwards from the core. Contrary to what I thought when I first saw them, these aren’t hydrogen alpha emissions! These bands are the result of dust particles converting the abundant IR radiation into visible light through photoluminescence. I encourage the reader to follow this link to an image where amateur data was combined with hydrogen alpha data off the Subaru Telescope to illustrate the extent of the photoluminescence present.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160829.htmlThe surrounding non ionized, non reflecting dust helps to wrap everything up nicely. This nebula was a favorite of ours even before doing literature review but further reading really helped to add some context to the object at hand. Work by the Spitzer Space Telescope presents this image in an IR view, maybe we’ll get lucky and eventually get an improved view from the James Webb one day!
Michael and Jonathan Norman
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