View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Basudeb Chakrabarti from Heaven’s Mirror Observatory in Australia captured this image of the Dolphin Head Nebula on February 8, 2022. Basudeb wrote: “Deep sky object Sh2-308 – more popularly known as Dolphin Head Nebula – is an H-II region [a shining cloud of gas in space, energized by a hot, young, massive star]. It lies about 4,530 light-years from Earth, toward the constellation Canis Major the Greater Dog. The massive Wolf-Rayet star, EZ Canis Majoris (which is the bright one near the center), formed the nebula about 70,000 years ago. It threw off its outer hydrogen layers, revealing inner layers of heavier elements. Fast stellar winds, blowing at 3.8 million mph (1,700 km/s), create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of the star’s evolution. The nebula is approximately 60 light-years wide, covering slightly more sky than a full moon.” Thank you, Basudeb!
February photos of the deep sky
Enjoy these February deep-sky photos taken by members of the EarthSky community. Do you have a great photo to share? Submit it to us here.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Peter Forister took this image from Charlottesville, Virginia, on February 21, 2022. Peter wrote: “The ‘Starburst’ (M82) and ‘Bode’s’ (M81) galaxies in the Big Dipper. Shot from central Virginia, with about 3 hours of exposure time with my camera and telephoto lens setup.” Thank you, Peter!
Bottom line: Members of the EarthSky community shared these amazing photos of February’s deep sky. Have a great photo of your own? Submit it to EarthSky Community Photos.
Kelly Kizer Whitt has been a science writer specializing in astronomy for more than two decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine, and she has made regular contributions to AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club, among other outlets. Her children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, was published in 2012. She has also written a young adult dystopian novel titled A Different Sky. When she is not reading or writing about astronomy and staring up at the stars, she enjoys traveling to the national parks, creating crossword puzzles, running, tennis, and paddleboarding. Kelly lives in Wisconsin.
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