The
Heart Nebula is an
emission nebula, 7500 light years from Earth, located in the
Perseus Arm of the Milky Way in the constellation
Cassiopeia. It was discovered by
William Herschel on 3 November 1787. Spanning almost 2 degrees in the sky, its shape is driven by stellar winds from the hot stars in its core. The nebula displays glowing ionized
hydrogen gas and darker
dust lanes, and is also made up of ionised oxygen and sulfur gasses, which cause rich blue and orange colours to be seen in narrowband images. This photograph of the Heart Nebula, with the
Fish Head Nebula also visible in the top right corner, is a narrowband image captured on a 70mm scope with a capture period of around 44 hours.
Photograph credit: Ram Samudrala
.jpg)
.jpg){kind=small}
