I mentioned these in the "Happy 15th Birthday, APOD!" thread. The Heart (IC 1805) and the Soul (IC 1848) are emission nebulae that lie 6000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. Although the WISE image's color is "representational", it's still beautiful!
In the same light of direction are the elliptical galaxy Maffei 1 and the spiral galaxy Maffei 2.
More information:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/ ... 00524.html
November 2011 Astronomy, pp. 24-25.
Heart and Soul Nebulae
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 5959
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 5959
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Re: Heart and Soul Nebulae
Jesús M.Vargas and Maritxu Poyal contributed a beautiful image of the Soul Nebula, which made it as yesterday's APOD. The nebula contains a radio source called (I believe) Westerhout 5.
The 21 August 2018 APOD:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180821.html
The 21 August 2018 APOD:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180821.html