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Using data obtained form the NASA – Ames Research Center Kuiper Airborne Observatory, scientists created this image of the Swan Nebula (also known as M17) to show how it would appear if viewed through a large telescope sensitive to infrared. Located in the southern sky in the constellation Sagittarius, this region contains a cloud of ionized, interstellar gas excited by recently formed stars. Astronomers call this type of cloud as Hll region. The M17 Hll region is bounded on the southwest by a molecular cloud. The far-infrared radiation is brightest just adjacent to the Hll region, the result of thermal emission form dust grains, most of which are located outside the ionized gas. |
