N11 (also known as LMC N11, LHA 120-N 11) is the brightest

emission nebula An emission nebula is a nebula formed of ionized gases that emit light of various wavelengths. The most common source of ionization is high-energy ultraviolet photons emitted from a nearby hot star. Among the several different types of emissio ...

in the north-west part of the Large Magellanic Cloud in the

Dorado Dorado () is a constellation in the southern sky. It was named in the late 16th century and is now one of the 88 modern constellations. Its name refers to the dolphinfish (''Coryphaena hippurus''), which is known as ''dorado'' in Spanish, altho ...

constellation. The N11 complex is the second largest

H II region An H II region or HII region is a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionized. It is typically in a molecular cloud of partially ionized gas in which star formation has recently taken place, with a size ranging from one to hundreds ...

of that galaxy, the largest being the

Tarantula Nebula The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is a large H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), forming its south-east corner (from Earth's perspective). Discovery The Tarantula Nebula was observed by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille durin ...

. It covers an area approximately 6 arc minutes across. It has an elliptical shape and consists of a large bubble, generally clear interstellar area, surrounded by nine large

nebulae A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming region ...

. It was named by

Karl Henize Karl Gordon Henize (;JPL-80 "NASA Creates Portrait of Life and ...

in 1956. When close-up, the nebula has pink clouds of glowing gas which resembles candy floss. It has been well studied over the years and extends 1,000 light-years across. Its particularly notable features include a huge cavity measuring 80 by 60 pc and a five million year old central cluster ( NGC 1761). It is surrounded by several

ionized Ionization, or Ionisation is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged atom or molecule ...

clouds where young

O star An O-type star is a hot, blue-white star of spectral type O in the Yerkes classification system employed by astronomers. They have temperatures in excess of 30,000 kelvin (K). Stars of this type have strong absorption lines of ionised helium, st ...

s are forming. Several massive stars are within it, including LH 9, LH 10, LH 13, LH 14. It includes a supernova remnant N11L. In the very centre of NGC 1761 is a bright

multiple star A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars that orbit each other, bound by gravitational attraction. A large group of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a ''star cluster'' or ''galaxy'', although, broadly speaking, ...

HD 32228 which contains a rare blue Wolf-Rayet star, type WC5 or WC6, and an O-type

bright giant A giant star is a star with substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main-sequence (or ''dwarf'') star of the same surface temperature.Giant star, entry in ''Astronomy Encyclopedia'', ed. Patrick Moore, New York: Oxford University Press ...

Bean Nebula

The brightest nebulosity within N11 is the northern region N11B (

NGC 1763 NGC 1763 (also known as N11 B, LH 10 or ESO 85-EN20) is an emission nebula with an embedded star cluster in the Dorado constellation in the Large Magellanic Cloud, It is very bright, very large and very irregular. Its apparent size is about 3.0-5. ...

), also known as the Bean Nebula because of its shape.

Other most notable nebulae

On N11B's north-east edge is the more compact N11A, known as the Rose Nebula, which has rose-like petals of gas and dust and are illuminated due to the massive hot stars within its centre. It is also known as IC 2116 and was catalogued as a star HD 32340. The east side of the N11 complex is N11C ( NGC 1769), an emission nebula containing at least two compact open clusters. Outside the main "bubble" of N11 to the northeast is N11E, also known as NGC 1773, a small bright nebula containing several massive young stars. The south portion of the bubble is N11F, also called NGC 1760. The western portion of the bubble is faint and poorly-defined. To the south-west of N11 is the 7th magnitude red giant HD 31754, a foreground star/star system, lying close to our sightline with open cluster NGC 1733. Three farther galaxies visible from most southern deep space telescopes and observatories are west of N11: the pair PGC 16243 and PGC 16244; and LEDA 89996. To the south of them lie NGC 1731 and TYC 8889-619-1 which are part of the galaxy's N4 complex. The bright

globular cluster A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars. Globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards their centers. They can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of membe ...

NGC 1783 figures to the north of N11.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:N11 (emission nebula) Large Magellanic Cloud Emission nebulae Dorado H II regions Star-forming regions Astronomical objects discovered in 1956