Corona Australis and NGC 6723

This spectacular region of molecular cloud in Corona Australis is one of the closer star-forming regions in the galaxy. It contains a splendid variety of different kinds of interesting objects. As well as the very obvious blue reflection nebulae (NGC 6727 (left) and IC 4812 (right)), where the light from the four very bright stars is illuminating the dust in this region, there are a number of separately catalogued Herbig-Haro (HH) objects set within that dust. These young stellar objects are where high-speed narrow jets of gas and matter travel away from newly-formed stars at velocities as high as one million kilometres per hour. This rapidly ejected material then interacts with the surrounding gas, heating it up via friction and produces bright, curved shock fronts. These objects are transient phenomena, lasting no more than a few thousand years after the birth of a star. In detail, within this image there many HH objects, the most conspicuous of which are the bow shocks around the small star between the two regions of blue reflection nebula (HH 82), and the tiny red (HH101N) and sickle-shaped (HH100) objects enveloped in the dust at the centre of this image. The addition of some hydrogen-alpha data to this image has helped to accentuate these short-lived objects.

In addition to all the foreground interest, at 28,000 to 30,000 light years away, lies NGC 6723 (also known as the ‘Chandelier Cluster’) - the globular cluster to the left in this image. Some stars within this cluster have an enhanced metallicity and are thus young stars, somewhat unusual for a globular cluster.

In the centre-right of this image and in the very far distance (and somewhat obscured by all the foreground action) lies the tiny, very distant face-on spiral galaxy, 2MASX J19002351-3712243. This 15th magnitude galaxy lies around 355 million light years away, and is sufficiently distant to show a small red-shift.

~13hrs: Lum, R, G, B (acquired in 2024) with 9hrs H-a (acquired May 2025)