Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/S.Wolk; IR: NASA/JPL/CfA/S.Wolk
Colors processing: Exoplanet.sg
NGC 281 Pac-Man Nebula
NGC 281 is commonly known as Pac-Man Nebula as it resemblance the video game character “Pac-Man” in optical image. NGC 281 consists of an open cluster of stars IC 1590 around the center of this image and dark lanes of gas and dust – Bok globules. However, in infrared wavelength, the dark clouds grow brightly as shown in this composite image of infrared and X-ray. Infrared is colored light blue and X-ray is colored purple. NGC 281 lies high above our Milky Way galactic plane away from the obscuring gas and dust making it a good target for astronomers to study high-mass stars. NGC 281 is located in the constellation Cassiopeia and discovered by E. E. Barnard in 1883.