NGC 3199
NGC 3199 is an emission nebula located in the constellation Carina. It is an HII (hydrogen) region excited by an open star cluster (OCL 819) in its center.
This crescent-shaped cocoon of gas and dust lies 12,000 light-years away from Earth and is about 75 light-years across. The object’s bright crescent feature is now known to be part of a much larger but fainter bubble of gas and dust.
NGC 3199 was discovered by British astronomer John Herschel in 1834 as he compiled his famous catalogue of interesting night sky objects. The nebula contains a notable star notable star named WR18 (otherwise known as HD 89358), which is an unusual type of star known as a Wolf-Rayet star. Wolf-Rayet stars are massive, powerful, and energetic stars that are just about reaching the end of their lives.
They flood their surroundings with thick, intense, fast-moving winds that push and sweep at the material found there, carving out weird and wonderful shapes as they do so. These winds can create strong shockwaves when they collide with the comparatively cool interstellar medium, causing them to heat up anything in their vicinity. This process can heat material to such high temperatures that it is capable of emitting X-rays, a type of radiation emitted only by highly energetic phenomena in the Universe.
This is what has happened in the case of the nebula NGC 3199. HD 89358 generates incredibly intense stellar winds and outflows that smash into and sweep up the surrounding material, contributing to NGC 3199’s twisted and lopsided morphology. Once HD 89358 it has run out of material to fuel these substantial winds it will explode violently as a supernova, creating a final breath-taking blast as it ends its stellar life.
This image captures NGC 3199 through a Hydrogen Alpha filter.
Technical Details
- Object: NGC 3372
- Other Names: Gum 28, RCW 48, Banana Nebula
- Object Type: emission nebula
- Object Data: Apparent Magnitude = 6.7, Angular Size = 20 x 20 arc-minutes
- Object Position (Equinox 2000): 10h 17m, -57° 56´, Constellation = Carina
- Date: 2021 Feb 26-28 (3 nights)
- Location: Chile Remote Observatory, Observatorio El Sauce, Chile
- Partnership: Operated in partnership with David Churchill
- Telescope: Planewave CDK-17 (with Focal Reducer: f/4.5; FL = 1945mm)
- Camera: QHY 16200A with Integral 7-position Filter Wheel
- Mount: Astro-Physics 1600GTO
- Guider: Agena Starguide II / SBIG STi
- Sub-Exposures: Astronomik Filters
- H-Alpha (6nm):94 x 10 min = 940 min - Total Exposure: 15h 40m
- File Name: NGC3199-CDK21Ha-C01w.jpg
- Field of View: 38.9' x 58.3' at 0.64 arc-sec/pixel
- Original Image Size: 3630 x 4540 pixels (16.5 MP); 12.1" x 15.1" @ 300 dpi
- Data Acquisition: David Churchill
- Image Processing: Fred Espenak
- Maxim DL: Image Calibration, Stacking, Digital Development Processing
- Adobe Camera Raw: Noise Reduction
- Photoshop CC: Curves, Levels
- Topaz Labs: Sharpen AI - Copyright: Fred Espenak