Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Vela (Vel)  ·  Contains:  HD77046  ·  HD77433  ·  NGC 2736  ·  Pencil Nebula
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NGC 2736 Pencil Nebula, Daniel Stern
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NGC 2736 Pencil Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 2736 Pencil Nebula, Daniel Stern
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 2736 Pencil Nebula

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Description

The Pencil Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Vela. It’s a small part of a supernova remnant that exploded about 11,000 years ago. The pencil-like shape suggests that it is part of the supernova shockwave that encountered a region of dense gas.  It’s that intersection that causes the nebula to glow.  The colors of the various regions in the nebula yield clues about this cooling process. Some regions are still so hot that the emission is dominated by ionized oxygen atoms, which glow blue/green in the picture. Other regions have cooled more and are seen emitting red in the image (cooler hydrogen atoms). In this situation, color shows the temperature of the gas.

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NGC 2736 Pencil Nebula, Daniel Stern