AAO image reference AAT 47. « Previous || Next »
Top left is NE. Image width is about 11.5 arc min
Image and text © 1986-2002, Anglo-Australian Observatory, photograph by David Malin.
There are few clearer examples anywhere of the intimate relationship between dust, gas and young stars than M16. We see a young cluster of stars (NGC 6611) which formed about 2 million years ago, illuminating a cloud of hydrogen gas. The gas is also dusty, and in places the dust is dense enough to prevent starlight from reaching the gas and making it glow with its distinctive red hue. The luminous hydrogen provides a vivid background against which are seen numerous dark lanes and discrete globules of dust. Many of the dusty clouds are edged with bright rims which indicate the direction of the exciting stars and point to the cluster as the energising source.
Entry from NGC 2000.0 (R.W. Sinnott, Ed.) © Sky Publishing Corporation, 1988:
NGC 6611 C+N 18 18.8 -13 47 s Ser 35. 6.0 Cl, at least 100 st L & S; = M16 IC 4703 OC 18 18.9 -13 47 x Ser B, eL, Cl M16 invRelated Images
AAT 18. The emission nebula Messier 16, NGC 6611
AAT 18a. The dust lanes in Messier 16 (wide field)
For details of photographic exposure, search technical table by AAT reference number.