The North American Nebula (also known as NGC 7000) is a collection of emission and dark nebulae that resembles the outline of North America. It is located approximately 1,600 light years from our solar system in direction of the constellation of Cygnus - the Swan.
This image is a composite from two black and white images taken with the Palomar Observatory's 48-inch (1.2-meter) Samuel Oschin Telescope as a part of the Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. The images were recorded on two glass photographic plates - one sensitive to red light and the other to blue. The plates were scanned and color combined to produce the image seen here.
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