25 Apr 2026
IC2177, the Seagull Nebula, in the SHO palette. It lies about 3500 ly from Earth in the constellation Monoceros and is huge--100 ly across. The Seagull is formed by hydrogen and oxygen gases ionized by young, hot stars spread throughout it. One estimate of star formation in the Seagull is 8-14 new stars per million years.
IC 2177
11 credit