Colorful Cosmic Reflections

This striking image, streaked with bright swathes of color, captures the beautiful reflection nebula NGC 2170. The diffuse clouds of interstellar dust in the nebula scatter and reflect light from nearby stars, creating this vividly colorful scene. Dust grains reflect blue light from hot stars embedded in the nebula. And warm hydrogen gas glows a deep red. Seen as dark tendrils, dust also absorbs the light from stars and gas behind it. This particular nebula lies in the constellation Monoceros (The Unicorn) — a faint constellation on the celestial equator. It was observed using the SMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.

Credit:

CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Acknowledgments: Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin

About the Image

Id:iotw2048a
Type:Observation
Release date:Nov. 25, 2020, 4 p.m.
Size:2032 x 1841 px

About the Object

Name:NGC 2170
Constellation:Monoceros
Category:Nebulae

Image Formats

Large JPEG
1.0 MB
Screensize JPEG
231.8 KB

Zoomable


Wallpapers

1024x768
235.8 KB
1280x1024
380.0 KB
1600x1200
562.1 KB
1920x1200
694.3 KB
2048x1536
834.0 KB

Coordinates

Position (RA):6 7 49.16
Position (Dec):-6° 22' 56.55"
Field of view:13.59 x 12.32 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 90.2° right of vertical


Colors & filters

BandWave-lengthTele-scope
Optical
g
475 nmSMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope
Tek2K
Optical
r
626 nmSMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope
Tek2K
Optical
i
773 nmSMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope
Tek2K
Optical
H-alpha
656 nmSMARTS 0.9-meter Telescope
Tek2K