Van den Bergh 93 Nebula in Monoceros | Kitt Peak National Observatory

Van den Bergh 93 Nebula in Monoceros | Kitt Peak National Observatory

Curtains of gas and dust dramatically open here to reveal the inner region of this star-forming region. Unceremoniously named, bright star SAO 152320 shines with intense light in the center of this field. Clouds of gas glow strongly and dust shrinks quickly under its radiative prowess. This vista lies some 4,000 light years away in the Milky Way galaxy towards the constellation of Monoceros. This is a portion of a much larger nebula called Gum 1.

This image was taken as part of Advanced Observing Program (AOP) program at Kitt Peak Visitor Center during 2014.

The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, 88 kilometers (55 mi) west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With more than twenty optical and two radio telescopes, it has one of the largest installations of astronomical instruments in the Earth's northern hemisphere.

Kitt Peak National Observatory was founded in 1958. It is home to what was the largest solar telescope in the world, and many large astronomical telescopes of the late 20th century in the United States.

The observatory was administered by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) from the early 1980s until 2019, after which it was overseen by NOIRLab.

Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Bill Uminski and Cyndi Kristopeit/Adam Block

Release Date: June 13, 2014

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