NASA Spotlight: The Seagull Nebula is the astrophoto of the day

The Seagull Nebula is today’s NASA highlight. It is about 3,800 light-years away from us and is a large expanding cloud of gas and dust.

THE nebula from Gaivota, formed by gas and dust, is the object highlighted on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website this Thursday (19). Located in the direction of Siriusthe brightest star in the night sky, this “cosmic bird” appears in a mosaic of three images.

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Cataloged as “Sh2-296” and “IC 2177”, the Gull Nebula appears to be part of a larger structure affected by a series of supernova explosions. It is located on the “frontier” between the constellations Monoceros and Canis Major, respectively the Unicorn and the Canis Major.

To watch:

This nebula is about 3,800 light-years away and was discovered by Isaac Roberts, an amateur astronomer who described it as “very bright, extremely large, irregularly round and very diffuse”.

The photo also shows a complex of gas and dust clouds there, such as the bluish gaseous arc formed by the star FN Canis Majoris. The cluster of objects includes other stars in the Canis Majoris OB1 association and spans more than 200 light-years.

Learn more about the Seagull Nebula

Although they are quite different from each other, nebulae have one thing in common: when they are observed for the first time, their shapes give wings to the creativity of astronomers, who end up giving them curious names, as happened with this nebula.

The gas cloud cataloged as Sharpless 2-292 appears to be responsible for forming the gull’s “head”, and glows due to the stellar radiation young, warm and extremely energetic that exists within you.

The radiation from the young stars causes the hydrogen gas to glow in reddish tones, forming one of the so-called “HII regions”. They have this name because they are formed from ionized hydrogen, where protons and electrons recombine and emit light at specific wavelengths.

Source: APOD

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Camila

Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.