Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  52 Cyg  ·  LBN 191  ·  LDN 868  ·  NGC 6960  ·  NGC 6974  ·  NGC 6979  ·  Sh2-103  ·  The star 52Cyg  ·  Veil Nebula
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NGC 6960 The Witches Broom Nebula or Western Veil Nebula, George  Yendrey
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NGC 6960 The Witches Broom Nebula or Western Veil Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 6960 The Witches Broom Nebula or Western Veil Nebula, George  Yendrey
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 6960 The Witches Broom Nebula or Western Veil Nebula

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Description

NGC 6960, also known as the Western Veil Nebula, the Witch's Broom Nebula, is the remnant from a supernova which occurred about 10,000 years ago. It is the counterpart to the Eastern Veil Nebula, NGC 6992. Both together compromise The Cygnus Loop, a super nova remanent.  Its amazing filamentary structure is thought to be due to compression of expanding shells of gas as they meet the resistance of the interstellar medium. However, the shells are so thin that, with few exceptions, we see them only where viewed exactly edge-on. The fact that much of what we see as "empty" space is filled with dark dust is evidenced by the fact that more background stars are visible below the nebula than above it. This is because the shock wave has swept the area below the nebula clear of the dust, allowing more background stars to shine through. The bright star, 52 Cygni, is a type K star and is actually a foreground object with no physically association with the nebula

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NGC 6960 The Witches Broom Nebula or Western Veil Nebula, George  Yendrey