Beautiful images of a distinctive nebula — called the Tulip — has been captured by UAE astronomers. Called so as its shape resembles the flower, the emission nebula is located in the Cygnus constellation.
The Al-Khatem Astronomical Observatory in Abu Dhabi shared the main image of the nebula as well as its enlarged sections on social media.
It said that Tulip nebula is 6,000 light years away from Earth — light needs 70 years to travel from one end to the other — and is composed mainly of hydrogen gas and a little oxygen and sulphur.
The observatory further said that “ultraviolet radiation from surrounding stars ionizes the gas, making it appear green, blue, and red.”
“The blue bubble resulting from ionization from the bright star at the top right of the centre of the image is clearly visible in the image.
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The Tulip Nebula’s image was taken using the 14-inch Al Khatem Observatory main telescope in the Abu Dhabi desert.
The observatory said the image is a composite of 236 images taken with hydrogen (green), oxygen (blue) and sulphur (red) filters, with each image exposed for three minutes, for a total exposure of about 12 hours. After processing, the hydrogen gas appears orange and the oxygen gas appears blue.