NGC 3199 & NGC 3247

NGC 3199, NGC 3247,  These nebulae  lie about 12,000 light-years away, a glowing cosmic cloud in the nautical southern constellation of Carina. NGC 3199 at the lower left  is known as the banana nebula and is about 75 light-years across in this narrowband false color. Though the deep image reveals a more or less complete bubble shape, it does look very lopsided with a much brighter edge along the lower left. Near the center is a Wolf-Rayet star, a massive, hot, short-lived star that generates an intense stellar wind. In fact, Wolf-Rayet stars are known to create nebulae with interesting shapes as their powerful winds sweep up surrounding interstellar material In this case, the bright edge was thought to indicate a bow shock wave produced as the star plowed through a uniform medium, like a boat through water. A more likely explanation is that the material surrounding the star is not uniform, but clumped and denser near the bright edge of windblown NGC 3199. The uv light from the Wolf-Rayet star is responsible for the emission from the nebula as it excites the Hydrogen and Oxygen gasses which re-emit the light. NGC 3247 in the right center of the image is home to over 2,000 stars and contains more than 300 protostars. Of note, on the far right side is the Westerlund 2 star cluster, which includes some of the hottest, brightest and most massive stars known. The green color in the image comes from Hydrogen emission  and the blue color comes from Oxygen emission. The reddish color comes from Sulfur emission. The image is a composite of three separate images. The overall image was taken with an Astro Physics RH305 telescope in Australia and the detail of NGC 3199 was taken by a Planewave CDK17 telescope in Chile.