Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Monoceros (Mon)  ·  Contains:  NGC 2237  ·  NGC 2238  ·  NGC 2239  ·  NGC 2246  ·  NGC 2252  ·  Rosette A  ·  Rosette B  ·  Rosette Nebula  ·  The star 12 Mon
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NGC 2244 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros, Hap Griffin
NGC 2244 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros
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NGC 2244 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros

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NGC 2244 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros, Hap Griffin
NGC 2244 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros
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NGC 2244 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros

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Description

This is the beautiful Rosette Nebula (NGC 2244) in the constellation Monoceros. It certainly lives up to its name. A glowing cloud of hydrogen 130 light-years across, it is the birthplace of the loose star cluster in its interior, which is actually NGC 2244, although the entire complex has become know by that nomenclature.. This nebula is huge...although 5200 light-years distant, it spans roughly a degree of sky, or twice the diameter of the full moon. The central star cluster is visible to the naked eye, but the nebula itself is tough to see even in a telescope without a special optical filter such as a Lumicon UHC. The stars in the central cluster were formed out of the gas and dust in the nebula's center, resulting in its thinness there.

The dark, stringy objects scattered through the nebula are known as Bok Globules, named after Bart Bok, the astronomer who studied them extensively. They are regions of compressed gas and dust in the first stages of star formation.

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NGC 2244 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros, Hap Griffin