images

Dust in Iris Nebula

by

Nasa/ESA/Novapix

Reference

a-neb70-23011

Date

2009-12-01

This close-up of an area in the northwest region of the large Iris Nebula (NGC 7023) seems to be clogged with cosmic dust. With bright light from the nearby star HD 200775 illuminating it from above, the dust resembles thick mounds of billowing cotton. It is actually made up of tiny particles of solid matter, with sizes from ten to a hundred times smaller than those of the dust grains we find at home. Both background and foreground stars are dotted throughout the image.
North is down, East is right. The field of view is 3.3 arcminutes. The image is a composite of four images obtained by the Hubble space Telescope through blue, green, near-infrared and H-alpha filters.