Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  IC 5134  ·  NGC 7129  ·  NGC 7142
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NGC 7129, John Bozeman
NGC 7129
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NGC 7129

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NGC 7129, John Bozeman
NGC 7129
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 7129

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Description

NGC 7129 is a reflection nebula located 3,300 light years away in the constellation Cepheus. A young open cluster is responsible for illuminating the surrounding nebula. A recent survey indicates the cluster contains more than 130 stars less than 1 million years old. NGC 7129 is located just half a degree from nearby cluster NGC 7142. The nebula is rosebud-shaped; the young stars have blown a large, oddly shaped bubble in the molecular cloud that once surrounded them at their birth. The rosy pink color comes from glowing dust grains on the surface of the bubble being heated by the intense light from the young stars within. The ultra-violet and visible light produced by the young stars is absorbed by the surrounding dust grains. They are heated by this process and release the energy at longer infrared wavelengths as photographed by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The reddish colors in the false-color infrared image suggest the distribution of hydrocarbon rich molecular material. The much cooler molecular cloud outside the bubble is mostly invisible to Spitzer. However, three very young stars near the center of the nebula are sending jets of supersonic gas into the cloud. The collision of these jets heats carbon monoxide molecules in the nebula. This produces the complex nebulosity that appears like a stem of a rosebud.

Composite image of DSS-II data (75%) and WISE IR data (25%).

2nd Digital Sky Survey data:
Red and Blue plates.

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) IR Data
Color Mapped:
Red - 22 micron IR
Green - 12 micron IR
Cyan - 4.6 micron IR
Blue - 3.4 micron IR

 Processed with Registar, GraXpert, PixInsight and Photoshop 2023.

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NGC 7129, John Bozeman