Galactic Nebula NGC 1985

NGC 1985
NGC 1985: Galactic nebula in Auriga; 500 mm Cassegrain f=3625mm / f7.2; SBIG STL11K; 45+3*30 min LRGB; Bernese Highlands; © 2011 Radek Chromik

History

The NGC 1985 nebula was discovered on 13 November 1790 by the German-British astronomer Wilhelm Herschel. [196] John L. E. Dreyer described it in his 1888 «New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars» as follows: «considerably faint, small, round, rather suddenly brighter center.» [313] In the «Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebulae» published in 1967, the two Czech astronomers Luboš Perek and Luboš Kohoutek still considered NGC 1985 to be a planetary nebula and gave it the designation PK 176+0.1. This error has been corrected in the 2001 new edition. [146]

Physical Properties

NGC 1985
NGC 1985: Sections from different Surveys: PanSTARRS/DR1 (visual: z 867.9 nm, g 486.6 nm), 2MASS (infrared: J 1.23 μm, H 1.66 μm, K 2.16 μm), AllWISE (infrared: W4 22 μm, W2 4.6 μm, W3 3.4μm) [147]

Also known as AFGL 5157 (Air Force Geophysical Laboratory) or Mol 11, the object hosts a molecular cloud-riddled, active star-forming region with H2O masers, H2 nodes, massive protostar candidates, and an H-II region. The area is approximately 13.5 pc in diameter at a distance of approximately 1.8 kpc. Embedded star cluster IRAS 05345+3157 is mainly visible in infrared light. An expanding shell of hydrogen, also glowing in the infrared, surrounds the cluster, which is estimated to be around 10 million years old. Research suggests that an early collision of two molecular cloud filaments may have triggered star formation. [367]

Revised+Historic NGC/IC Version 22/9, © 2022 Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke [277]
Designation NGC 1985
Type RN
Right Ascension (J2000.0) 05h 37m 47.8s
Declination (J2000.0) +31° 59' 20"
Diameter 0.68 arcmin
Photographic (blue) magnitude 12.7 mag
Metric Distance 1.800 kpc
Dreyer Description cF, S, R, psbM
Identification, Remarks PK 176+0.1, CS=13.6, not a PN

Finder Chart

The galactic nebula NGC 1985 is located in the constellation Auriga, which is best visible from September to April.

Finder Chart Galactic Nebula NGC 1985
Galactic Nebula NGC 1985 in constellation Auriga. Charts created using SkySafari 6 Pro and STScI Digitized Sky Survey. Limiting magnitudes: Constellation chart ~6.5 mag, DSS2 close-ups ~20 mag. [149, 160]

More Objects Nearby (±15°)

References