Deep-Sky Dreams: The Soul Nebula   

The Soul Nebula IC 1848, captured with a long-exposure image taken with a large backyard telescope. Credit: Bob Fera and Steve Mandel

Key Takeaways:

• The Soul Nebula (IC 1848) is a large star-forming region in the Cassiopeia constellation.
• It's about 7,500 light-years away and spans 300 light-years across.
• Several small star clusters are located within the Soul Nebula.
• The nebula's light is spread out, making parts of it appear dim.

Key takeaways sponsored by The Space Store

The Soul Nebula, catalogued as IC 1848 and Westerhout 5, is a sprawling emission nebula lying very close in the sky to another mammoth star forming region, its neighbor IC 1805, the Heart Nebula. Both lie in Cassiopeia and are so large they are quite faint to see visually, but make for great astroimaging targets. 

Transforming the gas in this large nebula slowly into a new generation of stars means that several small open clusters are intermingled with the nebulous light, most famously IC 1848, which gives the nebula its main designation as well. Smaller clusters involved with the nebulosity include Collinder 34.

The Soul Nebula lies at a distance of about 7,500 light-years, the same approximate distance as its neighbor the Heart Nebula, and this object spans about 300 light-years in terms of physical space. The nebula glows with the light of a magnitude 6.5 star, but its light is so spread out that small parts of it appear pretty dim.