AAO image reference AAT 35a. « Previous || Next »
Top left is NE. Image width is about 60 arc min
Image and text © 1999-2010, Australian Astronomical Observatory, photograph by David Malin.
In the hollowed-out centre of the Rosette nebula in Monoceros lies NGC 2244, the cluster of young stars recently formed there. The cluster has itself created the cavity, radiation pressure and stellar winds from the stars blowing the gas and dust away from the young cluster. The hottest (and brightest) members of the group are seen as distinctly blue on this photograph, a colour corresponding to a surface temperature around 20,000K which may be compared with the Sun's 5500K. The nebula and its cluster is at a distance of about 4500 light years and shows many streaks and globules of dust, remnants of the cloud from which the stars formed.
Related Images
AAT 35. The Rosette Nebula and NGC 2244 cluster (off centre view)
UKS 9. The Rosette Nebula and open cluster NGC 2244
Constellation of Monoceros (external site)
For details of photographic exposure, search technical table by AAT reference number