Gallery | Spitzer Space Telescope Greatest Hits | Galactic North America, Part 1
This is the iconic North America Nebula, named for what should be an obvious reason: its remarkable resemblance to the continent, complete with Florida and the Gulf of Mexico!
Located in Cygnus, it's high in the sky near the bright star Deneb for northern hemisphere observers in the summer. I've seen this myself; it's big enough to spot with binoculars from a very dark site. The shape can difficult to see that way, but really pops out in pictures.
The image above is a combination of infrared shots by Spitzer (red and green) and visible light images taken as part of the Digitized Sky Survey is included (blue). As you can see it's the visible light that creates the illusion of North America.
Note how the "Gulf of Mexico" region is very dark; dust is quite thick there, blocking visible light. As it turns out, this is also where stars are busily being born, as you'll see in the next image in the gallery...
Original press release
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/L. Rebull (SSC/Caltech)
Located in Cygnus, it's high in the sky near the bright star Deneb for northern hemisphere observers in the summer. I've seen this myself; it's big enough to spot with binoculars from a very dark site. The shape can difficult to see that way, but really pops out in pictures.
The image above is a combination of infrared shots by Spitzer (red and green) and visible light images taken as part of the Digitized Sky Survey is included (blue). As you can see it's the visible light that creates the illusion of North America.
Note how the "Gulf of Mexico" region is very dark; dust is quite thick there, blocking visible light. As it turns out, this is also where stars are busily being born, as you'll see in the next image in the gallery...
Original press release
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/L. Rebull (SSC/Caltech)
