Heart Nebula

Heart Nebula

Emission nebula
H II region
File:IC1805 -- H-alpha + RGB.jpg The Heart Nebula
Observation data: J2000.0 epoch
Right ascension	02h 33m 22s
Declination	+61° 26′ 36″
Distance	7,500 ly
Apparent magnitude (V)	18.3
Apparent dimensions (V)	150' x 150'
Constellation	Cassiopeia
Physical characteristics
Absolute magnitude (V)	6.5
Designations	IC1805, Sh2-190

The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, Sharpless 2-190, lies some 7500 light years away from Earth and is located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glowing gas and darker dust lanes. The nebula is formed by plasma of ionized hydrogen and free electrons.

The very brightest part of this nebula (the knot at the right) is separately classified as NGC 896, because it was the first part of this nebula to be discovered.

The nebula's intense red output and its configuration are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula's center. This open cluster of stars known as Melotte 15 contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of our Sun's mass. The cluster used to contain a microquasar that was expelled millions of years ago.

• Melotte15HunterWilson.jpg

  Open Cluster Melotte 15 at the core of IC 1805.

• Heart and Soul nebulae.jpg

  The Heart and Soul nebulae are seen in this infrared mosaic from NASA's WISE telescope.

• NGC 896 using 32 inch Schulman telescope on Mt. Lemmon, AZ.jpg

  NGC 896 using 32 inch Schulman telescope on Mt. Lemmon, AZ. (orientation modified)

File:Maffei 1 and 2.jpg

A portion of the nebula can be seen at the right of this image.

See also

• Soul Nebula

External links

• Heart Nebula at Atlas of the Universe
• Heart Nebula at APOD