The Rosette Nebula is a vast flower of glowing hydrogen in Monoceros, hollowed out at its centre by the hot young stars of the cluster NGC 2244 inside it.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 4,610 light-years (1.41 kpc) |
| its light left it | 4,610 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 39 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 Rosette Nebula
The Rosette is an emission nebula: a cloud of hydrogen ionised by ultraviolet light from the young, massive stars of the open cluster NGC 2244 at its centre. Their radiation and winds have blown a cavity in the middle, so the glowing gas forms a ring, the petals of the rose. Its brightest parts were catalogued separately as NGC 2237, NGC 2238, NGC 2239 and NGC 2246.
The nebula is the visible face of a much larger giant molecular cloud that stretches away from it. Where the cluster’s light meets denser gas, the edge is broken into dark globules and elephant trunks, small knots that may collapse into new stars. Infrared surveys find further young clusters embedded in the cloud beyond the rosette, so star formation is spreading through the complex.
What you see in the piece
In the piece it is a large cloud of glowing gas in the outer Milky Way. Its red colour is the light of ionised hydrogen, and it is drawn at a scale many times larger than the planetary nebulae nearby.
Questions
What lights up the Rosette Nebula?
The hot, massive young stars of the open cluster at its centre ionise its hydrogen, which then glows red; their winds have cleared the hole in the middle.
How far away is the Rosette Nebula?
The Rosette Nebula is 4,610 light-years (1.41 kpc) from the Sun, so its light left it 4,610 years ago.