Soul nebula is one of my favorite targets in the night sky, I really like bridge of bright hydrogen gas in the middle that shines brighter than the surrounding nebulosity. It gives the image almost 3D like look. This object is part of a much larger complex of dust and gas, named Heart and Soul nebulae complex. The two nebulae are separated by 2.5 degrees in the sky and are physically connected together with a bridge of gas. They span an area of approx. 300 light years across. The stars in this region are very young, only few million years old. For comparison, our own sun is 4,6 billion years old - and lucky for us has another 5 billion years to go until it runs out of fuel.
Ville Puoskari
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