Astr110 Photography Projects, Fall 2006

NGC 6914, Jordan Schaenzle

This object is a bright nebula in the Cygnus constellation. A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, gas and plasma. Nebulas are said to be the birthplaces of stars because they contain the loose material of which stars form. The brilliant colors seen are a result of the different gasses and dust emitting and reflecting different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. This nebula is approximately 5000 light years away from Earth and spans about 20 light years from top to bottom.

The photograph above was taken on October 12th, 2006. The cloud displayed in this photograph occupies about 14 arcminutes of the sky. The brilliant colors seen are a result of the different gasses and dust emitting and reflecting electromagnetic radiation. The red color appears because of the presence of Hydrogen in the cloud. Energized Hydrogen emits visible red light. The blue color is seen because of the presence of the dust in the cloud. As electromagnetic energy from the Sun hits the dust cloud, it is scattered in such a way that the blue wavelength of light is visible. On the left side of the photograph we see the dust illuminated because the stars on the left are between Earth and the cloud. On the right portion of the photo, we see mostly darkness and not as much color. This is because the stars on the right side are mostly behind the nebula cloud. The light from these stars merely silhouettes the cloud making it difficult to see.

References:
"Nebula." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 15 Nov. 2006. 16 Nov. 2006  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula>.