Eagle Nebula

From Free net encyclopedia

Perhaps one of the most famous and easily recognized space objects, the Eagle Nebula (also known as Messier Object 16, M16 or NGC 6611) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens. It is associated with a diffuse emission nebula, or H II region, which is catalogued as IC 4703. This region of current star formation is about 7,000 light years distant.

The Hubble image below is one of the most popular poster images of outer space, and often appears in science-fiction movies. The Eagle Nebula was one of the space regions passed through during the famous opening "zoom out" shot of the movie Contact (1997). Click the link below to the SEDS page to see where the nebula gets its name.

Image:Eagle.column1.arp.750pix.jpg

[edit]