Nebula NGC 2170 in Monoceros | NASA Spitzer & WISE Infrared Space Telescopes

Nebula NGC 2170 in Monoceros | NASA Spitzer & WISE Infrared Space Telescopes

Image Processor Judy Schmidt: "NGC 2170 is one of those nebulas that in visible light is difficult to forget. So striking are these tendrils of dust once they are fully revealed, one cannot help associating some kind of emotion with it. I personally find it to be dark and brooding."

"These dusty star-forming regions tend to also be interesting in infrared, so I decided to see what kind of data was available in the archives. Lo and behold, Spitzer had observed the region in my favorite bands and so I set forth to compose this . . . there is a load of star formation going on in there. When looking at these particular infrared bands I find it's easier to think in terms of dust rather than stars, though. Sure, there are points of light that are stars, but it seems to me that without the dust component they'd all be oddly invisible."

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope:
https://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

NASA's WISE/NEOWISE Mission

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/neowise/

Image Credit: NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)/NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (SST)/JPL-Caltech
Image Processing: Judy Schmidt
Release Date: Nov. 13, 2016

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