McNeil's Nebula is a

variable nebula Variable nebulae are reflection nebulae that change in brightness because of changes in their star. See also *McNeil's Nebula *NGC 1555 (Hind's Variable Nebula) *NGC 2261 NGC 2261 (also known as Hubble's Variable Nebula or Caldwell 46) is a va ...

discovered January 23, 2004 by Jay McNeil of

Paducah Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Miss ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. It is illuminated by the star V1647 Ori.

Discovery

McNeil's Nebula is a cometary-type reflection nebula, illuminated by the reddish star V1647 Ori (also catalogued as IRAS 05436-0007) at its southern tip. The nebula did not appear in images taken before September 2003; it was discovered in 2004 by amateur astronomer Jay McNeil using a 3-inch telescope. University of Hawaii researcher Bo Reipurth's preliminary studies have determined that McNeil's Nebula appeared when V1647 Ori, a pre-main sequence star, experienced an outburst called a FU Orionis or EX Lupii type event. Most stars are believed to undergo such events, though they are rarely observed.

Earlier images

The nebula has been identified on images taken by Evered Kreimer in October 1966, but not in various other images taken between 1951 and 1991. The nebula appears therefore to be very variable in luminosity, and is a reflection nebula illuminated by a variable star of some kind, or with the star's light being variably obscured for some reason.McNeil's Nebula near M78
The nebula was not observed after 2004 until 2008, when it reappeared once more.

2018 disappearance

In November 2018 the

Sky & Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomic ...

website reported that the nebula had disappeared. On November 5, an observer using the 500-mm Gemini telescope at the Iowa Robotic Observatory reported its disappearance. Another observer using a 30-inch

Dobsonian telescope A Dobsonian telescope is an altazimuth-mounted Newtonian telescope design popularized by John Dobson in 1965 and credited with vastly increasing the size of telescopes available to amateur astronomers. Dobson's telescopes featured a simplified ...

on November 3 also failed to detect the nebula.

References

External links

CNN article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mcneil's Nebula Reflection nebulae Orion molecular cloud complex Protostars Orion (constellation)