Sprawling across almost 200 light-years,
emission nebula IC 1805 is a mix of glowing interstellar gas and
dark dust clouds. Its nickname is the Heart Nebula. About 7,500
light-years away in the Perseus spiral arm of our galaxy, stars
were born in IC 1805. In fact, near the cosmic heart's center
are the massive hot stars of a newborn star cluster also known
as Melotte 15, about 1.5 million years old. This deep view of
the region around the Heart Nebula, cropped from a larger
mosaic, spans about 2.5 degrees on the sky or about 5 times the
diameter of the Full Moon.
