Medusa Neb­ula (PK 205+14.1) in Gemini

The Medusa Neb­ula is a large plan­et­ary neb­ula in the con­stel­la­tion of Gem­ini on the Canis Minor bor­der. It also known as Abell 21 and Sharp­less 274. It was ori­gin­ally dis­covered in 1955 by UCLA astro­nomer George O. Abell, who clas­si­fied it as an old plan­et­ary neb­ula. The braided ser­pent­ine fil­a­ments of glow­ing gas sug­gests the ser­pent hair of Medusa found in ancient Greek mythology.

Until the early 1970s, the Medusa was thought to be a super­nova rem­nant. With the com­pu­ta­tion of expan­sion velo­cit­ies and the thermal char­ac­ter of the radio emis­sion, Soviet astro­nomers in 1971 con­cluded that it was most likely a plan­et­ary nebula.

This image is a com­bin­a­tion of long exposed nar­row­band-data (Ha/​OIII) with a clas­sic­al LRGB. North is about upper right of the image. The galaxy group left of the neb­ula is ran­ging between mag 18.2 (PGC 1422135) and mag 18.8 (PGC 1421175).

[descrip­tion from wikipedia]

Details

Find­er Chart Medusa Neb­ula (PK 205+14.1) in Gemini

Image cre­ated by Skychart

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