Two spectacular and famous nebulae — the Eagle Nebula and the Omega Nebula — share the stage with their lesser-known neighbor, a glowing cloud called Sharpless 2-54, in this 3 gigapixel image (zoomable) from ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope, located at Paranal Observatory in Chile.
This trio of nebulae — the Omega Nebula (left), the Eagle Nebula (center), and Sharpless 2-54 (right) — makes up just a portion of a vast complex of gas and dust within which new stars are springing to life and illuminating their surroundings. Image credit: ESO.
The Omega Nebula, the Eagle Nebula and Sharpless 2-54 are located approximately 7,000 light-years away — the first lies within the constellation of Sagittarius, while the latter two fall within the constellation of Serpens.
This region of the Milky Way Galaxy houses an enormous cloud of star-making material.
The three nebulae indicate where regions of this cloud have clumped together and collapsed to form new stars.
The energetic light from these stellar newborns has caused ambient gas to emit light of its own, which takes on the pinkish hue characteristic of areas rich in hydrogen.
Two of the objects in this image were discovered in a similar way — astronomers first spotted bright star clusters in both Sharpless 2-54 and the Eagle Nebula, later identifying the vast, comparatively faint gas clouds swaddling the clusters.
In the case of Sharpless 2-54, British astronomer William Herschel initially noticed its beaming star cluster in 1784.
That cluster, catalogued as NGC 6604, appears in this image on the object’s left side.
The associated very dim gas cloud remained unknown until the 1950s, when American astronomer Stewart Sharpless spotted it on images from the National Geographic Society-Palomar Observatory Sky Survey.
The Omega Nebula, the Eagle Nebula, and Sharpless 2-54 in one image. Image credit: ESO.
The Eagle Nebula did not have to wait so long for its full glory to be appreciated — Swiss astronomer Philippe Loys de Chéseaux first discovered its bright star cluster, NGC 6611, in 1745-1746.
Several decades later, French astronomer Charles Messier observed this patch of sky and also documented the nebulosity present there, recording the object as Messier 16 in his influential catalogue.
As for the Omega Nebula, de Chéseaux did manage to observe its more prominent glow and duly noted it as a nebula in 1745.
However, because the Swiss astronomer’s catalogue never achieved wider renown, Messier’s re-discovery of the Omega Nebula in 1764 led to its becoming Messier 17.
