Sh2-106 is an emission nebula and a star formation region in the constellation Cygnus estimated to be around 2,000 light-years from Earth. A young, massive star in the centre of the nebula emits jets of hot gas from its poles, forming the bipolar structure. The nebula is about 2 light-years across. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The outstretched “wings” of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium. Twin lobes of super-hot gas, glowing blue in this image, stretch outward from the central star. This hot gas creates the “wings” of our angel. A ring of dust and gas orbiting the star acts like a belt, cinching the expanding nebula into an “hourglass” shape.
M22, M13, Omega Centauri and other densely-populated globular clusters get most of the attention, but even sparsely-populated globulars provide rich fodder for the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA and the European Space Agency marked the Hubble Space Telescope’s 30th anniversary with a colourful look at a vast star-forming region inside the Large Magellanic Cloud
NGC 247 is a relatively small spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Cetus (The Whale), part of the Sculptor Group around 11 million light-years from us. NGC 247 displays one particularly unusual and mysterious feature — an apparent void in the usual swarm of stars and H II regions in the northern part of its disc that spans almost a third of the galaxy’s total length.
