The Rosette Nebula is an emission nebula, a large star forming region located in the constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn.
The nebula is a large cloud of gas and dust that lies near a large molecular cloud and is closely associated with the open cluster NGC 2244, whose stars were formed from the nebula鈥檚 matter in the last five million years.
The Rosette (or Rosetta) Nebula鈥檚 appearance in optical light resembles a rose flower or the rosette, the stylized flower design used in sculptural objects since ancient times, and the nebula was named after the design.
The Rosette Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 9.0 and is approximately 5,200 light years distant from Earth.
The nebula is a region of intense star formation. The stellar winds from the young stars inside the nebula exert pressure on interstellar clouds and the compression leads to ongoing star forming activity in the nebula.
The Rosette Nebula contains very hot young stars in its central region. The gas surrounding these stars has a temperature of 6 million kelvins and as a result the stars emit intense amounts of X-ray radiation.
