Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  Cocoon Nebula  ·  IC 5146
Cocoon Nebula, Luca Dinoi
Cocoon Nebula
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Cocoon Nebula

Cocoon Nebula, Luca Dinoi
Cocoon Nebula
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Cocoon Nebula

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Description

IC 5146 Cocoon Nebula
IC 5146, (also known as C 19), is an open cluster attached to a diffuse nebula visible in the constellation Cygnus.
The nebula is an agglomeration of gas and dust containing young stars that have excavated its interior, as happens in M 42. The nebula is rich in hydrogen, it is an HII region, which emits light by emission and is the one that it is referred to as a "star factory". It has an overall magnitude of 7.2 and is about half as wide as the lunar disk. It has an irregular shape, even if roughly rounded, with a real diameter of about 15 light years and is found inside an open cluster, in which there are several stars suspected of being variable, which illuminate part of it also by reflection.
The brightest star of the open cluster has a magnitude of 9.74, an age of about one hundred thousand years, but probably it is not part of it (it overlaps the cluster prospectively), as its distance seems different from that of the cluster is equal to only 3,300 light years.
Steve Coe's commentary reports that the nebula and cluster are about one degree distant from a dark matter filament Barnard 168 (B 168), which extends about two degrees and projects onto the disk of the Milky Way. The dark nebula is clearly visible in Ligustri's image: it is the dark filament that surrounds the nebula and moves away to the right.

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Cocoon Nebula, Luca Dinoi