The Merope Nebula is a reflection nebula in the Pleiades, a cloud of dust that shines blue by scattering the light of the star Merope and its neighbours.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 444 light-years (136 pc) |
| its light left it | 444 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 26 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 Merope Nebula
A reflection nebula makes no light of its own. Its dust grains simply scatter the light of nearby stars toward us, and because small grains scatter blue light more efficiently than red, the glow is blue, for the same reason the daytime sky is. The Merope Nebula, NGC 1435, is the brightest patch of the haze that surrounds the Pleiades.
The dust is not the remains of the cloud the cluster formed from. The Pleiades are moving through a separate cloud of interstellar material, and the nebula is the part of it that happens to lie close to the cluster’s bright stars. Close to Merope, the radiation and light pressure of the star are visibly sculpting the grains into fine streaks.
The nebula was found visually by the astronomer Wilhelm Tempel, and later photographs revealed that the haze extends across the whole cluster.
What you see in the piece
It is drawn as dust lit by reflection, so its colour is borrowed from the cluster’s hot stars rather than from any glowing gas; it brightens only where a star sits close enough to light it.
Measured or modelled
The cloud’s shape and extent in the piece are modelled; the real dust is wispy and patchy, and only its nearest parts are bright enough to see.
Questions
Why is the Merope Nebula blue?
It is dust reflecting the light of the hot Pleiades stars. Small grains scatter blue light more than red, so the reflected light is blue.
Is the Merope Nebula part of the Pleiades?
Not by origin. It is an unrelated cloud the cluster is passing through, at the same 444 light-years (136 pc) from the Sun.