The Rosette
Nebula consists of dust and gas extending over a vast area. It stretches over 1
degree of the sky, covering roughly five times the area of the full moon.
Young stars
that formed from the nebula's material (in open cluster NGC 2244) fill the
nebulosity, and these stars make the nebula glow by the process of exciting its
atoms into emission of visible light.
The nebula
lies in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy, and is believed to exist
at a distance of 5,200 light years from Earth.
— CHFT, SEDS and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: Canada-France-Hawaii
Telescope/Coelum
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