Heart Nebula: Cosmic Love via Plasma of Hydrogen Ions and Free Electrons

Summary: The Heart Nebula, known to astronomers as IC 1805, Sharpless 2-190, photographs as cosmic love via a plasma of hydrogen ions and free electrons.

Heart Nebula; image date Friday, July 31, 2009; image location near Halcottsville, Delaware County, New York: s58y, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

The Heart Nebula, designated by astronomers as IC 1805, Sharpless 2-190 (Sh 2-190), is sited in the Perseus Spiral Arm, one of the Milky Way’s two major spiral arms. The home constellation for the Heart Nebula is Cassiopeia, the northern sky’s distinctive “M” of five bright stars that lies opposite the Big Dipper and borders Cepheus to the north, Andromeda to the south, Perseus to the southeast.

About 7,500 light years separate the Heart Nebula from Earth. A light year, which is represented by the symbol ly, is a unit of distance, not of time. A light year expresses an astronomical distance of approximately 6 trillion (6,000,000,000,000) miles, or 10 trillion (10,000,000,000,000) kilometers.

The brightest part of the nebula was the first part to be discovered. It appears as a knot in the nebula’s northwestern corner. Named NGC 896, the bright knot encompasses a region of faint hydrogen alpha emission. Dark dust lanes stretching across the Heart Nebula obscure much of the star formation occurring inside NGC 896.

A plasma of hydrogen ions and free electrons is responsible for forming the Heart Nebula. Plasma comprises one of the four fundamental states of matter, along with gas, liquid and solid. Free electrons are characterized by a lack of attachment to ions, atoms or molecules, which thereby allows them to move freely under the influence of applied electric or magnetic fields. One of the universe’s most abundant elements, hydrogen displays a simple structure, without neutrons, of one electron and one proton. Ionization, the process of gaining or losing electrons, often in tandem with other chemical changes, bestows a negative or positive charge upon an atom or a molecule.

The Heart Nebula’s cloud of ionized gas emitting variously colored lights qualifies it for classification as an emission nebula. Chemical composition and degree of ionization determine an emission nebula’s colors.

The Heart Nebula’s redness derives from Melotte 15, an open cluster, also known as a galactic cluster, near the nebula’s center. A few stars in the cluster outmass the Earth’s sun nearly 50 times. Fantastically sculpted cosmic clouds in the heart of the Heart Nebula are shaped by stellar winds and by radiation from the bright, hot, massive stars in Melotte 15.

Emission nebula IC 1805 glows in portraits as a heart, a recognizable symbol of love.

Perhaps the universe likes to send valentines.

Melotte 15, an open cluster near the Heart Nebula's center, is responsible for the nebula's redness; Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1009: Hunter Wilson (Hewholooks), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Heart Nebula; image date Friday, July 31, 2009; image location near Halcottsville, Delaware County, New York: s58y, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IC1805_--_H-alpha_+_RGB.jpg;
s58y, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/s58y/4144731205/

Melotte 15, an open cluster near the Heart Nebula's center, is responsible for the nebula's redness; Nov. 11, 2009, Nov. 11, 2009: Hunter Wilson (Hewholooks), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melotte15HunterWilson.jpg