IC 4703 is the diffuse

emission nebula An emission nebula is a nebula formed of ionized gases that emit light of various wavelengths. The most common source of ionization is high-energy ultraviolet photons emitted from a nearby hot star. Among the several different types of emissio ...

or HII region associated with Messier 16, which is actually a cluster of stars. It is the nebulous region surrounding Messier 16. These two objects make up the

Eagle Nebula The Eagle Nebula (catalogued as Messier 16 or M16, and as NGC 6611, and also known as the Star Queen Nebula) is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux in 1745–46. Both the "Eagle" ...

. They are relatively bright and are located in the constellation

Serpens Serpens ( grc, , , the Serpent) is a constellation in the northern celestial hemisphere. One of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, it remains one of the 88 modern constellations designated by the International ...

Cauda. This region contains the picturesque Pillars of Creation. This is an active star forming region 7,000

light years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

away. It is approximately magnitude 8. The cluster was discovered by Jean-Philippe Loys de Cheseaux, but

Charles Messier Charles Messier (; 26 June 1730 – 12 April 1817) was a French astronomer. He published an astronomical catalogue consisting of 110 nebulae and star clusters, which came to be known as the ''Messier objects''. Messier's purpose f ...

later rediscovered it and remarked on its apparent nebulous appearance. The cluster is estimated to be 5.5 million years old, and the nebula would be a bit older. The nebula is about 55 x 70 light years. The Eagle Nebula lies in the Sagittarius Arm of the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked ey ...

References

*The Belt of Venus. M16 and IC 4703 - The Eagle Nebula. 9/12/07
The Belt of Venus

References

See also