Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  Crescent nebula  ·  NGC 6888
Crescent Nebula - NGC6888, Jan Sjoerd de Vries
Crescent Nebula - NGC6888
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Crescent Nebula - NGC6888

Crescent Nebula - NGC6888, Jan Sjoerd de Vries
Crescent Nebula - NGC6888
Powered byPixInsight

Crescent Nebula - NGC6888

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Description

The Crescent Nebula (also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1792. It is formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163) colliding with and energizing the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant around 250,000 to 400,000 years ago. The result of the collision is a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures (Wikipedia).

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