Description:
The IC 1396 Nebula and its surrounding "friends".
Within the emission nebula IC 1396, which spans hundreds of light-years, glowing gas and dark dust clouds are intertwined. Stars are constantly being born from this nebula, located only three thousand light-years away from us. This particularly vibrant image of the nebula was synthesized from several digital images taken through narrow-band filters. These filters actually block out most starlight, allowing only light waves emitted by specific types of atoms in the nebula to pass through. In this way, we can distinguish which elements are the primary sources of IC 1396’s glow. For example, radiation emitted by sulfur atoms is marked in red, hydrogen radiation is green, and oxygen is blue. This beautiful and scientifically valuable image is quite different from what we would see with the naked eye. IC 1396 is located in the constellation Cepheus.
NASA Website:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090819.html
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