Plunge into a stellar ocean

In this Picture of the Week, we take a deep plunge into the ocean of stars in the IC4701 nebula. This nebula is located in the Sagittarius constellation, and it is twice as wide as the full Moon in the sky. The energetic light from newly-born stars ionizes the hydrogen gas in the nebula, causing it to emit the intense reddish hue seen in this picture. The dark clouds in this image contain large amounts of interstellar dust, too dense for the light of the background stars to pierce through it.

The IC4701 nebula is part of a rich and vast complex of dust and gas within which new stars spring to life. When stars are born, most of them are cooler, redder, and less massive than our own Sun. Hotter, more massive stars are much rarer, and they quickly burn through all their fuel and die. This makes these brilliant blue and massive stars, and their surrounding glowing gas, beacons of recent star formation.

Credit:

ESO/VPHAS+ team. Acknowledgement: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

About the Image

Id:potw2310a
Type:Observation
Release date:6 March 2023, 06:00
Size:16823 x 16823 px

About the Object

Name:IC4701
Type:Early Universe : Nebula : Appearance : Emission : H II Region
Constellation:Sagittarius
Category:Nebulae

Image Formats

Screensize JPEG
661.0 KB

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1024x768
523.7 KB
1280x1024
834.1 KB
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1.1 MB
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1.8 MB

Coordinates

Position (RA):18 16 35.00
Position (Dec):-16° 40' 21.91"
Field of view:60.00 x 60.00 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 180.0° right of vertical

Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Optical
u
350 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM
Optical
g
480 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM
Optical
r
625 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM
Optical
H-alpha
659 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM
Optical
i
770 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM