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Emission Nebula NGC 6164-5
Emission Nebula NGC 6164-5
The emission nebula NGC 6164-5, a rectangular, bipolar cloud with rounded corners and a diagonal bar producing an inverted S-shaped appearance. It lies about 1,300 parsecs (4,200 light-years) away in the constellation Norma. The nebula measures about 1.3 parsecs (4.2 light-years) across, and contains gases ejected by the star HD 148937 at its heart. This star is 40 times more massive than the Sun, and at about three to four million years of age, is past the middle of its life span. Stars this massive usually live to be only about six million years old, so HD 148397 is aging fast. It will likely end its life in a violent supernova explosion.
To learn more about this image, see the Gemini press release "A Tale of Two Nebulae". (Date of Image: June 2006)
Credit: Gemini Observatory GMOS Image/Travis Rector - University of Alaska Anchorage
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