NGC2264 - The Cone Nebula

The Cone nebula is very famous, it is located in the Orion arm surrounding the star cluster NGC 2264. The cone is a triangular dark nebula near the bottom of the nebula. The bright star in the center of the photo is 15 Monocerotis (or S Monocerotis) - it is a quadruple system, consisting of four blue-white stars (classes O7, B7, B8 and A6) and are partly responsible for the brightness of the nebula .

The Cone (NGC 2264) is the main one - it is the brightest part of a large emission nebula and it is the only nebula whose precise distance is known. The distances to the other nebulae on this list are very uncertain. IC 446 and NGC 2245 appear to be a few thousand light years behind the Cone nebula, all others could be associated with it.

The distance to the Cone nebula is well known because it has a cluster at its center. The distance at which it is ... is about 2,200 light years, which means that the nebula is in the Orion arm and approximately 900 light years further from us than the Orion nebula.

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Photo: Juan Lozano, AstroBin