The Cepheus Flare is a complex of dark clouds rising out of the Milky Way’s plane in Cepheus, where a scattering of young stars is forming in dense cores.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 1,100 light-years (337 pc) |
| its light left it | 1,100 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 59 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Cepheus Flare
Most star-forming clouds lie along the Milky Way, but in Cepheus a group of dark nebulae extends well away from the plane, like a flare rising from the band. Several of these clouds, listed in the dark-nebula catalogues of Lynds and others, hold dense cores and young stars.
Star formation here is modest and low-mass: protostars, T Tauri stars and jets, studied in infrared and radio. The region’s shape has been linked to an expanding shell of gas around it, swept up by the winds and explosions of earlier stars.
What you see in the piece
From Earth it is dark patches above the Milky Way in Cepheus; the infrared band reveals the dust and its embedded stars.
Measured or modelled
The clouds seen in this direction may not all lie at the same distance, and the shell that shapes them is an interpretation. The extent shown in the piece is modelled.
Questions
How far away is the Cepheus Flare?
The Cepheus Flare is about 1,100 light-years (337 pc) from the Sun.
Why is it called the Cepheus Flare?
Because its dark clouds extend away from the Milky Way’s plane in Cepheus, like a flare rising from the band.