Astr111 Photography Projects, Fall 2009

California Nebula , Torie McCray

Named after the state of California because of it's shape, this particular nebula is located in the Orion Arm in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is an emission nebula which is in the constellation of Perseus. Emission nebula is a cloud of ionized gas which emits different colored light. It most commonly occurs from the high energy photons from nearby stars.

California nebula, also referred to as NGC 1499, has a linear size of .0084 arcseconds. This particular photo is only one sixth of the entire object. California Nebula is about 1000 light years away from Earth.The redness is due to the fact that hydrogen atoms are recombining with electrons that were taken away by energetic starlight.The nearby star creating this energy is the bright Persei, which is not seen in this photograph. New stars will form in the more denser regions of California Nebula.Things like radiation cause pressure in ridges which will collapse and create new stars.The denser red areas in the picture are areas of high density and were the new stars will form.

References:
Martin, David D., "NGC1499 California Nebula." SkyFactory.

http://ww w.skyfactory.org/ngc1499/ngc1499.htm