The (Bridal) Veil Nebular Complex
NGC 6960, 6992, 6995 and surrounds in Cygnus
is a vast cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust, also know as the Cygnus Loop or Cirrus Nebula. Discovered by the great English-German observer, William Herschel in 1784, it likely formed only 8,000 years ago, when a star, twenty times more massive than our Sun went supernova and exploded. At left is the Eastern Veil, NGC 6992 and 6995. At lower far-right is the Witch's Broom, NGC 6960. Pickering's Triangle, NGC 6979, is the very interesting fan-like structure at top-right. The entire complex is estimated to have an enormous radius of 50 light years, or 300,000,000,000,000 miles! Many thanks to my friend Terry Hancock of Grand Mesa Observatory for providing me this fine data.
LARGE
is a vast cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust, also know as the Cygnus Loop or Cirrus Nebula. Discovered by the great English-German observer, William Herschel in 1784, it likely formed only 8,000 years ago, when a star, twenty times more massive than our Sun went supernova and exploded. At left is the Eastern Veil, NGC 6992 and 6995. At lower far-right is the Witch's Broom, NGC 6960. Pickering's Triangle, NGC 6979, is the very interesting fan-like structure at top-right. The entire complex is estimated to have an enormous radius of 50 light years, or 300,000,000,000,000 miles! Many thanks to my friend Terry Hancock of Grand Mesa Observatory for providing me this fine data.
LARGE