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Summary
| DescriptionThere is an impostor in this nebula (potw2518a).jpg |
English: In space, not everything is what it seems. This Picture of the Week shows the nebula Sh2-46, also named Gum 80, situated roughly 6000 light-years away. The strong red hues of Sh2-46 might be beautiful, but they hide an impostor.The big blue-white star at the centre of the image is HD 165319, an O type star, one of the brightest, but rarest types of stars in the Universe. The star is largely responsible for the striking red tones around it, caused by the ionisation of the hydrogen atoms that make up the nebula. This star, however, should not be here. Astronomers think that this star was born somewhere else: in the nearby Eagle Nebula. Located in the tail section of the Serpens constellation (the snake), the Eagle Nebula is full of star-forming regions. Once born, these stars become bound by gravity, creating a giant open cluster. Sometimes, though, a few of them become disentangled, embarking on a solitary mission through space that can lead them to infiltrate other unrelated nebulae. A bow shock next to HD 165319 seems to indicate that the star is currently plunging through Sh2-46. Perhaps this nebula will end up looking differently if the star ends up leaving it behind…This highly detailed picture of Sh2-46 was taken by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), which explores the sky in visible light. Currently owned by INAF, the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, the VST is located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, in Chile. This image is being released on the occasion of the 100 years of the Planetarium, with a full-dome version being shown at the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. |
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| Date | 5 May 2025 (upload date) | ||
| Source |
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| Author | ESO/VPHAS+ team | ||
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Licensing
This media was created by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Their website states: "Unless specifically noted, the images, videos, and music distributed on the public ESO website, along with the texts of press releases, announcements, pictures of the week, blog posts and captions, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided the credit is clear and visible." To the uploader: You must provide a link (URL) to the original file and the authorship information if available. | |
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
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Captions
In space, not everything is what it seems. This Picture of the Week shows the nebula Sh2-46, also named Gum 80, situated roughly 6000 light-years away. The strong red hues of Sh2-46 might be beautiful, but they hide an impostor.
image/jpeg
11,776 pixel
11,776 pixel
93,980,946 byte
30f30f13099791a486e81f9c5dbe74015b11a5e6
5 May 2025
97mzbv82eku6txe8x2uhjzlufl5ojwtvqh3vsr85i5j7sr94s
File history
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| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| current | 07:19, 5 May 2025 | 11,776 × 11,776 (89.63 MB) | OptimusPrimeBot | #Spacemedia - Upload of https://cdn.eso.org/images/large/potw2518a.jpg via Commons:Spacemedia |
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Metadata
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| Credit/Provider | ESO/VPHAS+ team |
|---|---|
| Source | European Southern Observatory |
| Short title |
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| Image title |
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| Usage terms |
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| Date and time of data generation | 06:00, 5 May 2025 |
| JPEG file comment | In space, not everything is what it seems. This Picture of the Week shows the nebula Sh2-46, also named Gum 80, situated roughly 6000 light-years away. The strong red hues of Sh2-46 might be beautiful, but they hide an impostor. The big blue-white star at the centre of the image is HD 165319, an O type star, one of the brightest, but rarest types of stars in the Universe. The star is largely responsible for the striking red tones around it, caused by the ionisation of the hydrogen atoms that make up the nebula. This star, however, should not be here. Astronomers think that this star was born somewhere else: in the nearby Eagle Nebula. Located in the tail section of the Serpens constellation (the snake), the Eagle Nebula is full of star-forming regions. Once born, these stars become bound by gravity, creating a giant open cluster. Sometimes, though, a few of them become disentangled, embarking on a solitary mission through space that can lead them to infiltrate other unrelated nebulae. A bow shock next to HD 165319 seems to indicate that the star is currently plunging through Sh2-46. Perhaps this nebula will end up looking differently if the star ends up leaving it behind… This highly detailed picture of Sh2-46 was taken by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), which explores the sky in visible light. Currently owned by INAF, the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, the VST is located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, in Chile. This image is being released on the occasion of the 100 years of the Planetarium, with a full-dome version being shown at the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. Link Fly through the Sh2-46 nebula |
| Software used | Adobe Photoshop 25.12 (Windows) |
| Date and time of digitizing | 13:01, 25 September 2024 |
| File change date and time | 12:07, 11 October 2024 |
| Date metadata was last modified | 12:07, 11 October 2024 |
| Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:49705a56-04ee-654c-b49c-33c1e366f705 |
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| Contact information |
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, None, D-85748 Germany |
