Learn

      • Blog
      • Academy
      • About us
      • Forum

      Legal

      • Privacy Policy
      • Cookie Policy
      • Terms & Conditions

      Pricing

      • Plans

      Tutorials

      • All tutorials
      • Our tutors
      • Webinars

      Follow us

      • Facebook
      • Instagram
      IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula
      Wallpaper author:
      BRIAN HALKETT

      09 Dec 2022

      IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula

      SHO (Hubble palette)

      South of Antares, in the tail of the nebula-rich constellation Scorpius, lies emission nebula IC 4628. Nearby hot, massive stars, millions of years young, irradiate the nebula with invisible ultraviolet light, stripping electrons from atoms. The electrons eventually recombine with the atoms to produce the visible nebular glow, dominated by the red emission of hydrogen. At an estimated distance of 6,000 light-years, the region shown is about 250 light-years across, spanning over three full moons on the sky. The nebula is also cataloged as Gum 56 for Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, but seafood-loving astronomers might know this cosmic cloud as the Prawn Nebula.

      https://science.nasa.gov/ic-4628-prawn-nebula

      Dataset from which the image was processed

      IC 4628

      10 credit

      Open
      Telescope Live
      AUS-2-CCD
      • Type of target
        ............................................................................................................................
        Emission Nebula
      • Camera
        ............................................................................................................................
        FLI PL16803
      • Target coordinates
        ............................................................................................................................
        RA 254.2278 Dec -40.51235
      • Hemisphere
        ............................................................................................................................
        Southern
      • Telescope location
        ............................................................................................................................
        Australia
      • Transient event
        ............................................................................................................................
        No
      • Observed on
        ............................................................................................................................
        19 Jun 2021 - 22 May 2022
      Filter
      Avg Exp (s)
      Total Exposure
      Subframes
      Halpha6005h30
      OIII6005h30
      SII6005h30

      IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula