Glowing Rosy in the Dark: Nebula IC1284 in Sagittarius | ESO

Glowing Rosy in the Dark: Nebula IC1284 in Sagittarius | ESO

In the center of a dark red background, the cloud of a bright red nebula glows. Meanwhile, in the bottom right corner, two smaller blue nebulae shine in contrast to the surrounding reddish hue. Dotted across the entire image, there are several large blue and white stars, as well as many faint white and yellow stars. 

Distance: ~5,500 light years away

There are two different types of nebulae present here. Each appears with a distinct color in the visible sky and are captured here using the wide-field camera OmegaCAM on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in the Chilean desert.

The large, bright emission nebula at the center, IC1284, is a star-forming region composed primarily of hydrogen. Its rosy glow comes from electrons within the hydrogen atoms. They are excited by the radiation from young stars, but then they lose energy and emit a specific color or wavelength of light. One of the filters on OmegaCAM lets through this particular reddish color, hence the nebula’s look. Meanwhile, another color filter highlights the blue reflection nebulae NGC6589 and NGC6590 in the lower right corner. The dust in a reflection nebula preferentially scatters shorter, bluer wavelengths of light from nearby stars, which is what gives these nebulae their eerie glow. This is the same reason why the sky is blue!

The frame of this image covers an area roughly equivalent in the sky to a full Moon. This image was captured as part of a large ESO public survey, the VST Photometric H alpha Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+). Bulge observes nebulae and stars in visible light to help astronomers understand how stars are born, live and die.

Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team

Release Date: Oct. 2, 2023

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