Purple Haze

This week’s picture of the week features DG121, an HII region — a cloud of ionised hydrogen — located in the constellation of Puppis (the Stern).

HII regions, a type of emission nebulae, are created when young, massive stars release enough ultraviolet energy to ionise the surrounding gas clouds. These regions tend to have irregular structures and lack sharp boundaries, giving them their hazy, yet photogenic, appearance. The brightest star in the DG121 region, seen near the centre in this picture, is HD 60068. 

This spectacular image was taken with the FORS 2 (FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in the Chilean Atacama Desert. This instrument has been described by astronomers as "the Swiss army knife of instruments at Paranal", because of its ability to study many different astronomical objects in many different ways.

Credit:

ESO

About the Image

Id:potw2119a
Type:Observation
Release date:10 May 2021, 06:00
Size:1718 x 1727 px

About the Object

Name:DG121
Type:Milky Way : Nebula : Appearance : Emission : H II Region
Constellation:Puppis
Category:Nebulae

Image Formats

Large JPEG
520.3 KB
Screensize JPEG
190.6 KB

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Coordinates

Position (RA):7 32 9.97
Position (Dec):-16° 58' 18.07"
Field of view:7.21 x 7.25 arcminutes
Orientation:North is -0.0° left of vertical

Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Optical
B
440 nmVery Large Telescope
FORS2
Optical
V
557 nmVery Large Telescope
FORS2
Optical
R
655 nmVery Large Telescope
FORS2
Optical
H-alpha
656 nmVery Large Telescope
FORS2