Tulip Nebula and Black Hole Cygnus X 1

Tulip Nebula and Black Hole Cygnus X-1

Image Credit & Copyright:
Anirudh Shastry

Explanation:
When can you see a black hole, a tulip, and a swan all at once?

At night — if the timing is right,
and if your telescope is pointed in the
right direction.

The complex and beautiful
Tulip Nebula blossoms about 8,000
light-years away toward the
constellation of Cygnus the Swan.

Ultraviolet radiation from young energetic stars
at the edge of the Cygnus
OB3 association, including
O star HDE 227018,
ionizes the atoms and powers the emission from the Tulip Nebula.

Stewart Sharpless cataloged this nearly 70 light-years
across reddish glowing cloud of interstellar gas and dust in
1959, as
Sh2-101.

Also in the
featured field of view is the black hole
Cygnus X-1,
which to be a
microquasar because it
is one of strongest
X-ray
sources in planet Earth’s sky.

Blasted by powerful jets from a
lurking black hole,
its fainter bluish curved
shock front
is only faintly visible beyond
the cosmic Tulip’s petals, near the right side of the frame.