NGC 3603
| Emission nebula and open star cluster | |
|---|---|
| NGC 3603 | |
|
|
| The emission nebula NGC 3603 captured by the Hubble Space Telescope | |
| Constellation | Keel of the ship |
|
Position equinox : J2000.0 |
|
| Right ascension | 11h 15m 06.6s |
| declination | -61 ° 15 ′ 40 ″ |
| Further data | |
| Brightness (visual) |
+9.1 mag |
| Angular expansion |
4 '× 4' |
| distance |
22,000 ly |
| Affiliation | |
| classification |
I1pn |
| diameter | 20 ly |
| history | |
| discovery |
John Herschel |
| Date of discovery |
March 14, 1834 |
| Catalog names | |
| NGC 3603 • ESO 129-SC016 • OCL 854 • h 3334 • GC 2354 | |
| Aladin previewer | |
NGC 3603 is an emission nebula in the constellation Kiel des Schiff , which is approximately 22,000 light years from Earth . NGC 3603 is located in the Sagittarius-Carina arm of our Milky Way Galaxy and is about 26,000 light-years from the center of our galaxy , about the same distance as our sun .
NGC 3603 is also an open star cluster , which has the largest known cluster of giant stars, so-called Wolf-Rayet stars , in our Milky Way. This star cluster is a very active H-II region with very young stars that are around 2 million years old. For comparison: our sun is around 4.6 billion years old.
The massive star Sher 25 is located a little off the open star cluster . In the picture of Hubble to the right above the star cluster with a visible ring. Sher 25 is in the final stages of its star life and will explode as a supernova in a few thousand years .
The emission nebula NGC 3603 was discovered on March 14, 1834 by the British astronomer John Herschel .
In 2007, the only star to date was discovered in the emission nebula NGC 3603 whose mass could be determined with high accuracy as more than 100 solar masses . It was found by Canadian astronomers with the help of the Hubble telescope and the European Southern Observatory and has a weight of 114 solar masses. It forms a binary star system with a star weighing 84 solar masses ( NGC 3603 A1 ). For another pair of stars ( WR 20a ) around 80 solar masses were calculated.
Web links
- ESO: Curtain up for young stars + photos & animation - February 3, 2010
- GoBlack
- University of Washington - Single Hubble picture captures key phases in the stellar life cycle
- ISSI publication Spatium No. 6: From Dust to Planets (PDF file; 678 kB)
- Antilhue - Chile
- Capella Observatory
- NGC 3603: From Beginning To End - Astronomy Picture of the Day of June 4, 1999.
- Sher 25: A Pending Supernova? - Astronomy Picture of the Day from August 12, 1997 (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ NASA / IPAC EXTRAGALACTIC DATABASE
- ↑ a b c SEDS : NGC 3603
- ↑ Raise the curtain on young stars. ESO, February 3, 2010, accessed October 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Seligman
- ↑ Heaviest chunk so far: Astronomers discover record star. In: Spiegel Online . June 9, 2007, accessed May 2, 2020 .