Flaming Star Nebula

The Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405) is primarily an emission nebula located about 1500 light years from Willingboro and is about 5 light-years across. The red color is from the Ha emissions and the blue color results from light reflection from the illuminating star, so IC 405 could also be called an emission/reflection nebula.

But more interestingly is that the Flaming Star Nebula is caused by a runaway star, AE Aurigae, passing through, and illuminating, an unrelated interstellar cloud of gas and dust. AE Aurigae is one of three stars, the others being Mu Columbae and 53 Arietis (neither is shown here), which are moving away from a point in space near where the Trapezium in Orion presently lies. Approximately 2.7 million years ago something happened that ejected these three stars from Orion. It may have been a supernova explosion or, perhaps, a close encounter between two massive binary star systems. Or, it was possibly a result of the disruption in space-time caused by the alien space ship on its way to bring the monoliths to the earth, the moon, and Jupiter. Presently, we don’t know for sure.

Someday, perhaps.