Astronomy:NGC 2174

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Short description: Emission nebula in the constellation Orion
NGC 2174
Emission nebula
H II region
File:NGC-2174.tif
Monkey Head Nebula in Narrowband Sulfur-Hydrogen Alpha- Oxygen with a 1000mm telescope
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension 06h 09.7m[1]
Declination+20° 30′[1]
Distance6,400[citation needed] ly   (2,000 pc)
ConstellationOrion
See also: Lists of nebulae

NGC 2174 (also known as Monkey Head Nebula) is an H II[1] emission nebula located in the constellation Orion and is associated with the open star cluster NGC 2175.[1] It is thought to be located about 6,400 light-years away from Earth. The nebula may have formed through hierarchical collapse.[2]

There is some equivocation in the use of the identifiers NGC 2174 and NGC 2175. These may apply to the entire nebula, to its brightest knot, or to the star cluster it includes. Burnham's Celestial Handbook lists the entire nebula as 2174/2175 and does not mention the star cluster.[3] The NGC Project (working from the original descriptive notes) assigns NGC 2174 to the prominent knot at J2000  06h 09m 23.7s, +20° 39′ 34″ and NGC 2175 to the entire nebula, and by extension to the star cluster.[4] Simbad uses NGC 2174 for the nebula and NGC 2175 for the star cluster.[1] [5]

Glowing gas and dark dust do not survive well in the Monkey Head Nebula. Young stars near the center of the nebula generate stellar winds and high energy radiation that causes the nebula's material to shift into complex shapes.[6] The nebula is primarily composed of hydrogen which glows at infrared wavelengths due to the radiation.[7]

Hubble 24th Anniversary Images (2014)

24th anniversary image – 2014 – A set of Infrared images of Monkey Head Nebula incl. NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252[8]

Gallery

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "NGC 2174". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-basic?Ident=NGC+2174. 
  2. Cotera, A.; Hester, J.; Healy, K.; Snider, K.; Simpson, J.; Whitney, B. (August 2006). "Using Spitzer IRAC observations to Compare Modes of Star Formation in G305.35+0.7 and NGC 2174/5". Triggered Star Formation in a Turbulent ISM, International Astronomical Union Symposium. Prague, Czech Republic (published 2006). S237, #98. Bibcode2006IAUS..237E..98C. [|permanent dead link|dead link}}]
  3. Robert Burnham, Jr, Burnham's Celestial Handbook, Dover, 1978, p. 1280.
  4. "Public Database". Results for NGC 2174 and NGC 2175. http://www.ngcicproject.org/pubdb.htm. 
  5. "SIMBAD Astronomical Database". Results for NGC 2175. http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=ngc+2175&NbIdent=1&Radius=2&Radius.unit=arcmin&submit=submit+id. 
  6. "Monkey See, Monkey Do". Astronomy 42: 10. Aug 4, 2014. 
  7. "Pillars in the Monkey Head Nebula". Mar 17, 2014. https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/3887-Image?Collection=Hubble%20Heritage&page=3. 
  8. "Hubble Celebrates 24th Anniversary with Infrared Image of Nearby Star Factory". 2014-03-17. https://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/march/hubble-celebrates-24th-anniversary-with-infrared-image-of-nearby-star-factory/. 

External links