The Seagull Nebula on the borders of the constellations of Monoceros and Canis Major
PR Image eso1306c
Wide-field view of the entire Seagull Nebula (IC 2177)
Videos
Zooming in on the wings of the Seagull Nebula
This new image from ESO shows a section of a cloud of dust and glowing gas called the Seagull Nebula. These wispy red clouds form part of the “wings” of the celestial bird and this picture reveals an intriguing mix of dark and glowing red clouds, weaving between bright stars. This new view was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.
Panning across part of the Seagull Nebula
This new image from ESO shows a section of a cloud of dust and glowing gas called the Seagull Nebula. These wispy red clouds form part of the “wings” of the celestial bird and this picture reveals an intriguing mix of dark and glowing red clouds, weaving between bright stars. This new view was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.
Running along the border between the constellations of Canis Major
(The Great Dog) and Monoceros (The Unicorn) in the southern sky, the
Seagull Nebula is a huge cloud mostly made of hydrogen gas. It’s an
example of what astronomers refer to as an HII region. Hot new stars
form within these clouds and their intense ultraviolet radiation causes
the surrounding gas to glow brightly.
The reddish hue in this image is a telltale sign of the presence of ionised hydrogen [1].
The Seagull Nebula, known more formally as IC 2177, is a complex object
with a bird-like shape that is made up of three large clouds of gas —
Sharpless 2-292 (eso1237)
forms the “head”, this new image shows part of Sharpless 2-296, which
comprises the large “wings”, and Sharpless 2-297 is a small, knotty
addition to the tip of the gull’s right “wing” [2].
These objects are all entries in the Sharpless nebula catalogue, a
list of over 300 glowing clouds of gas compiled by American astronomer
Stewart Sharpless in the 1950s. Before he published this catalogue
Sharpless was a graduate student at the Yerkes Observatory near Chicago,
USA, where he and his colleagues published observational work that
helped to show that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy with vast, curved
arms.
Spiral galaxies can contain thousands of HII regions, almost all of
which are concentrated along their spiral arms. The Seagull Nebula lies
in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way. But this is not the case for
all galaxies; while irregular galaxies do contain HII regions, these
are jumbled up throughout the galaxy, and elliptical galaxies are
different yet again — appearing to lack these regions altogether. The
presence of HII regions indicates that active star formation is still in
progress in a galaxy.
This image of Sharpless 2-296 was captured by the Wide Field Imager
(WFI), a large camera mounted on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at
ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. It shows only a small section of
the nebula, a large cloud that is furiously forming hot stars in its
interior. The frame shows Sharpless 2-296 lit up by several particularly
bright young stars — there are many other stars scattered across the
region, including one so bright that stands out as the gull’s “eye” in
pictures of the entire complex.
Wide-field images of this region of the sky show a multitude of
interesting astronomical objects. The young bright stars within the
nebula are part of the nearby star-forming region of CMa R1 in the
constellation of Canis Major, which is filled with bright stars and
clusters. Also lying close to the Seagull Nebula is the Thor’s Helmet
Nebula, an object that was imaged using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT)
on ESO’s 50th Anniversary, 5 October 2012, with the help of Brigitte
Bailleul — winner of the Tweet Your Way to the VLT! competition (eso1238a).
Notes
[1] Astronomers use the term HII to
mean ionised hydrogen and HI for atomic hydrogen. A hydrogen atom
consists of an electron bound to a proton but in an ionised gas atoms
are split into freely moving electrons and positive ions, in this case
just single protons.
[2] These objects are officially designated Sh 2-292, Sh 2-296, and Sh 2-297 respectively in the SIMBAD astronomical database.
More information
ESO is the foremost intergovernmental
astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive
ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 15
countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark,
France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious
programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful
ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make
important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in
promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO
operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla,
Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large
Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical
observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and
is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is
the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in
visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary
astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in
existence. ESO is currently planning the 39-metre European Extremely
Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the
world’s biggest eye on the sky”.
Links
- Photos of the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
- Other photos taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
- Photos of La Silla
Contacts
Richard Hook
ESO, La Silla, Paranal, E-ELT & Survey Telescopes Press Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
ESO, La Silla, Paranal, E-ELT & Survey Telescopes Press Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
