The Nebula with No Name
This dim nebula in the constellation Perseus has no name, apart from its catalog numbers NGC 1491 and LBN 704.
I think it deserves one. It reminds me of the Bubble nebula – if you look closely, you’ll see a “bubble” at center being created from the stellar wind of the hot star that is ionizing the gases around it. Those ionized gases are what we’re seeing in these images, captured through “narrowband filters” that assign emissions from specific elements to different colors.
I processed this image three different ways below: one that approximates the natural colors of this object, one in the “Hubble Palette” (SHO) and another in a HOS palette (that means red represents ionized Hydrogen emissions, green is Oxygen, and blue is Sulfur.)
Kerri thinks it kind of loks like an upside-down ant head. So, we’re calling this the “ant-head nebula.” Let’s see if it catches on đŸ™‚
