Rosette Nebula

Like a red rose in the night sky, the Rosette Nebula is a favourite of astrophotographers. The Rosette Nebula is 130 light-years across and 5000 light-years from Earth. It is an H-II region where the hydrogen gas is undergoing active star formation. The hot young stars formed emit intense radiation that ionizes the hydrogen, creating the characteristic red glow of the nebula. The strong stellar winds from these stars also blow a hole in the gas cloud, and will eventually disperse the gas leaving an open cluster of stars at the centre.

This image was captured with 3 hours of exposure with an astro-modified DSLR and narrowband astrophotography filter.