SH2-106

Located in Cygnus, SH2 106, is an emission nebula and a star forming region c2000 light years distant, it’s estimated to be c5 lights years long and c0.5 light year wide.  It has a small apparent size of about 3 x 3 arc minutes and is rarely imaged.

The most interesting object within SH2 106 is a newly formed massive star named S106 IR. This is only c100,000 years old and is estimated to be c25,000 times the mass of the Sun. The star is a source of infra-red radiation and ejects hot gas from its poles forming a bipolar dust structure. It is rapidly rotating, which twists its magnetic fields, resulting in matter being blasted out at high speeds in opposite directions. The hydrogen gas near the star is ionised, making it glow red, whilst further away the dust reflects star light. Within this gas, c600 brown dwarfs have been detected, which have less that 10% of the mass of the Sun and so are incapable of sustained nuclear fusion. S106 IR is obscured by the dust it’s ejecting, so I’ve marked its position on the annotated image.

This LRGB image was taken with my Esprit 150 and represents 9 hours integration time.

Alan