Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Canis Major (CMa)  ·  Contains:  12 CMa  ·  16 CMa)  ·  16 omi01 CMa  ·  Canis Major  ·  LBN 1047  ·  LBN 1052  ·  M 41  ·  NGC 2271  ·  NGC 2287  ·  PK233-10.1  ·  PK236-10.1  ·  Sh2-303  ·  Sh2-308  ·  The star 12 CMa  ·  The star Udra (ο1 CMa

Image of the day 12/15/2024

    Diving for Pearls - Sh2-308 and M41, Timothy Martin
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    Diving for Pearls - Sh2-308 and M41

    Image of the day 12/15/2024

      Diving for Pearls - Sh2-308 and M41, Timothy Martin
      Powered byPixInsight

      Diving for Pearls - Sh2-308 and M41

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      Description

      Here we see an interstellar mammal heading toward stellar pearls in Canis Major. People have known about Messier 41, the Little Beehive Cluster, for a long time. It is thought that Aristotle may have been aware of it. Roughly 2,300 light years away, M41 contains approximately 100 stars. The Dolphin Head Nebula, Sh2-308, is about twice as far away and is powered by the Wolf-Rayet star EZ Canis Majoris (the blue star near the center of the dolphin head), which started to expel its outer layers at almost 4 million miles per hour some 70,000 years ago.

      I've rendered this with RGB stars in HOO using the Foraxx palette.

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