Heart and Soul Nebulae as seen by WISE

Wise_wise2010-018_1024

wise_WISE2010-018 May 24th, 2010

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

The Heart and Soul nebulae are seen in this infrared mosaic from NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The image covers an area of the sky over ten times as wide as the full moon, and eight times as high (5.5 x 3.9 degrees), in the constellation Cassiopeia.

Located about 6,000 light-years from Earth, the Heart and Soul nebulae form a vast star-forming complex that makes up part of the Perseus spiral arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. The nebula to the right is the Heart, designated IC 1805 and named after its resemblance to a human heart. To the left is the Soul nebula, also known as the Embryo nebula, IC 1848, or W5. The Perseus arm lies further from the center of the Milky Way than the arm that contains our Sun. The Heart and Soul nebulae stretch out nearly 580 light-years across, covering a small portion of the diameter of the Milky Way, which is roughly 100,000 light-years across.

The two nebulae are both massive star-making factories, marked by giant bubbles that were blown into surrounding dust by radiation and winds from the stars. WISE's infrared vision allows it to see into the cooler and dustier crevices of clouds like these, where gas and dust are just beginning to collect into new stars. These stars are less than a few million of years old -- youngsters in comparison to stars like the sun, which is nearly 5 billion years old.

Also visible near the bottom of this image are two galaxies, Maffei 1 and Maffei 2. Both galaxies contain billions of stars and, at about 10 million light-years away, are well outside our Milky Way yet relatively close compared to most galaxies. Maffei 1 is the bluish elliptical object and Maffei 2 is the spiral galaxy.

All four infrared detectors aboard WISE were used to make this image. Color is representational: blue and cyan represent infrared light at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.6 microns, which is dominated by light from stars. Green and red represent light at 12 and 22 microns, which is mostly light from warm dust.

Visit the JPL website to see the press release information.

Provider: Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

Image Source: /image/wise/WISE2010-018

Curator: Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Berkeley, CA, USA

Image Use Policy: Pulic Domain

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Heart and Soul Nebula IC 1818 IC 1805 IC 1871 IC 1795 Maffei 1 Maffei 2
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Star Formation
Nebula > Type > Interstellar Medium
Nebula > Appearance > Dark
Star > Grouping > Cluster > Open
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Galaxy > Type > Barred
Galaxy > Type > Elliptical
Wise_wise2010-018_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 2h 41m 53.3s
DEC = 61° 9’ 48.5”
Orientation
North is up
Field of View
5.5 x 3.9 degrees
Constellation
Cassiopeia

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue WISE Infrared (Near-IR) 3.4 µm
Cyan WISE Infrared (Near-IR) 4.6 µm
Green WISE Infrared (Mid-IR) 12.0 µm
Red WISE Infrared (Mid-IR) 22.0 µm
Spectrum_ir1
Blue
Cyan
Green
Red
Wise_wise2010-018_1280
×
ID
WISE2010-018
Subject Category
B.4.1.2.   B.4.1.1.   B.4.2.3.   B.3.6.4.1.   C.5.1.1.   C.5.1.2.   C.5.1.4.  
Subject Name
Heart and Soul Nebula, IC 1818, IC 1805, IC 1871, IC 1795, Maffei 1, Maffei 2
Credits
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
Release Date
2010-05-24
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
/image/wise/WISE2010-018
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Various distances are covered in this wide field mosaic
Facility
WISE, WISE, WISE, WISE
Instrument
Color Assignment
Blue, Cyan, Green, Red
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
Near-IR, Near-IR, Mid-IR, Mid-IR
Central Wavelength
3400, 4600, 12000, 22000
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
40.471940, 61.163470
Reference Dimension
7252, 5142
Reference Pixel
3626.5, 2571.5
Scale
-7.58333306293900e-04, 7.58333306293900e-04
Rotation
0
Coordinate System Projection:
SIN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
URL
http://wise.astro.ucla.edu
Name
Email
outreach@ssl.berkeley.edu
Telephone
Address
7 Gauss Way
City
Berkeley
State/Province
CA
Postal Code
94720
Country
USA
Rights
Pulic Domain
Publisher
Publisher ID
wise
Resource ID
Resource URL
/image/wise/WISE2010-018
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2018-01-11T02:37:34Z
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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