The Tulip Nebula - crop

Added 1644182563 by Roger More.

The Tulip Nebula lies in the Cygnus constellation, about 6000 light years away. It was catalogued in 1959 by Stewart Sharpless and designated by him as Sh-101.

Its shape is reminiscent of a tulip with petals and stamen, formed from the clouds of ionised gases and interstellar dust. A large area of hydrogen and oxygen gases and dust to the right of the tulip form dramatic structures invoking images of tulip foliage.

A micro-quaser comprised of a star and a small black hole is located just to the left of the 'Tulip'. Relativistic jets, very powerful jets of plasma, with speeds close to the speed of light, emanate from the accretion disk of the black hole, creating a shock front in the inter-stellar material - this is observed as the blue arc to the left of the Tulip.

The micro-quasar star, HDE 226868, and its associated black hole orbit each other in a period of just 5.6 days. The black hole has been shown to have a mass of around 15x the mass of our sun and a diameter of only around 45km. X-ray emissions from this were first detected in 1964 from a rocket. This was designated Cygnus X-1 and was the first X-ray source later accepted as coming from a black hole.