The Brain of the Swan - Crescent Nebula in HOO (William Gottemoller)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg) · Contains: Crescent Nebula · NGC 6888

The Brain of the Swan - Crescent Nebula in HOO, William Gottemoller

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The Brain of the Swan - Crescent Nebula in HOO

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The Brain of the Swan - Crescent Nebula in HOO

The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888, Sh2-105) is a bright emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan - hence the title). It was formed as the result of an intense stellar wind from WR (Wolf-Rayet) 136 colliding with past stellar winds it emitted upon becoming a red giant approximately 250,000 to 400,000 years ago. The collision formed the structures evident on this image - a shell (crescent) and two shockwaves (see the pulses in oxygen - blue). One of the shockwaves is so powerful that it heats the stellar winds - gasses emitted by a star's upper atmosphere - to X-ray emitting temperatures.

Since I first saw this nebula, I have called it the "Brain Nebula," in part because of its obvious similarities to the human brain. Therefore, "The Brain of the Swan," although it is not an accurate rendition of a swan's brain, is permissible.

The above image was taken on several nights at the Milwaukee Astronomical Society Observatory's flagship imaging telescope - G-scope. It incorporates 7.5 hours of data in H-Alpha and OIII, all taken at bin 2x2, gain 100 and offset 50.

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