Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  Crescent Nebula  ·  NGC 6888
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 6888, C27, Crescent Nebula, GeOK
NGC 6888, C27, Crescent Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6888, C27, Crescent Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 6888, C27, Crescent Nebula, GeOK
NGC 6888, C27, Crescent Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6888, C27, Crescent Nebula

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The Crescent Nebula (aka NGC 6888, C27) is about 6,700 ly away and the result of the  evolution of the bright Wolf-Rayet star, WR 136 (aka HD 192163), seen near it's center.  

WR 136 is nearing the end of its life and may explode as a supernova in several hundred thousand years.  It is 600,000 times brighter than the Sun, especially in UV light, 21 times more massive, 5 times larger, and 12 times hotter at its surface.  About 120,000-240,000 years ago WR 136 ejected five times the mass of the sun from its surface when it became a red supergiant star.  This expanding ejected material is interacting with the faster stellar wind from WR 136 to form a shell around the star.  

This OSC + Ha picture highlights the red Ha light emitted from hydrogen gas in the shell being excited by the intense UV light from WR 136.  

-Wikipedia

The stars in this picture have been processed separately and diminished from the nebula to better show details in the nebula.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

NGC 6888, C27, Crescent Nebula, GeOK