Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)
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Tulip Nebula with Cygnus X-1 and Bowshock Nebula, bryanthomasjd
Tulip Nebula with Cygnus X-1 and Bowshock Nebula
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Tulip Nebula with Cygnus X-1 and Bowshock Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Tulip Nebula with Cygnus X-1 and Bowshock Nebula, bryanthomasjd
Tulip Nebula with Cygnus X-1 and Bowshock Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

Tulip Nebula with Cygnus X-1 and Bowshock Nebula

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Description

The tulip nebula is an emission nebula in Cygnus. To the right of center is Cygnus X1, a black hole and powerful x-ray source closely orbitted by a blue supergiant star. The orbiting supergiant emits a stellar wind that forms an accretion disk around the black hole. As the surrounding matter in the accretion disk heats up, it emits x-rays and high-speed particles traveling at a good fraction of the speed of light. The resulting  bowshock nebula can be seen as the faint blue arc to the right of center and just above Cygnus X-1 and its companion star. The nebula forms as the particles hit the interstellar medium and high speed. 

Stephen Hawking famously discounted Cyguns X-1 as a black hole but ultimately acknowledge that it likes was a black hole. It is approximately 6,000 ly away with an event horizon or Schwarzchild radius of less than 30 miles.

7 hours of Ha (72 x 300")
7 hours of Oiii (72 x 300")
5 hours of Sii (60 x 300")

19 hours total integration.

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Tulip Nebula with Cygnus X-1 and Bowshock Nebula, bryanthomasjd