This object is an emission nebula located 6500 light years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The nebula spans 2 degrees in our apparent view, which corresponds to an actual width of about 230 light years.
This is a busy complex. IC 1848 is the open star cluster that occupies the right blue region in the image. Embedded in the left blue region are several smaller open clusters including IC 1871 and Collinder 34. The dramatic ridge of gases separating the two regions is LBN 673.
The stellar winds of the open star clusters in each region are carving out two huge evacuated lobes. This process leaves behind large pillars of eroded dust, all pointing inwards towards the star clusters in each lobe. These pillars are very dense and have stars forming at their tips. Each pillar spans about 10 light years. The pillars exist around half of the circumference of each lobe.
One of my favorite parts of this image is the small bright nebula at the left edge, Sh2-201. The internal dust patterns look alien-like to me.
I sometimes incorrectly think of space objects as being two dimensional because that is all we can see on a flat screen, but it is interesting to imagine what these blue spherical lobes must look like in 3 dimensions. The blue regions in each lobe, the central star clusters, the surrounding dust pillars, and the wispy faint black nebulae at the top are all easier to understand for me if I visualize it as a 3-D space.
This beautiful object is unfortunately stuck with the nickname of the Soul Nebula. It placed 7th on my list of
Worst DSO Nicknames.
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