Flame Nebula

Common card · No. 413817

The Flame Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Orion. Alternatively, it is designated as NGC 2024 and Sh2-277, and is also commonly known as the Lips Nebula, Burning Bush Nebula, Tank Tracks Nebula, Ghost of Alnitak, or One Piece Nebula. It is about 1350 light-years away. At that distance, the Flame Nebula lies within the Orion B cloud of the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. The bright star Alnitak (ζ Ori), the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion, appears very close to the Flame Nebula in the sky. But the star and nebula are not physically associated with one another. The Flame Nebula contains a young cluster of stars which includes at least one hot, luminous O-type star labeled IRS 2b. The dense gas and dust in the foreground of the nebula heavily obscures the star cluster inside the nebula, making studies at infrared wavelengths most useful. The energetic ultraviolet light emitted by the central O-type star IRS 2b into the Flame Nebula causes the gas to be excited...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Chuck Ayoub, CC0