Cocoon Nebula, IC 5146

Cocoon Nebula, IC 5146   Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. Cataloged as IC 5146, the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide, located some 4,000 light years away toward the northern constellation Cygnus. In the sky the nebula is about 15 arc minutes in size or about half the size of the full moon. This image was taken with atomic filters only allowing light from Hydrogen, Sulfur, and Oxygen atoms displayed in the  Hubbell palette where Hydrogen emission is in green, sulfur is red and Oxygen is blue. The central yellow color comes mainly from Hydrogen emission mixing with Sulfur emission and the dimmer outer reddish region is largely Sulfur emission.  The bright star near the center of this nebula is likely only a few hundred thousand years old and is exciting the Hydrogen and Sulfur gas emission as it clears out a cavity in the molecular cloud’s star forming dust and gas. This deep color view of the Cocoon Nebula traces tantalizing features within and surrounding the dusty stellar nursery.