W5 is a large emission nebula located in the Cassiopeia constellation, close to the Heart Nebula (IC 1805). There are several open star clusters inside the Soul Nebula, including IC 1848, which is often used to identify it.
The Soul Nebula is a star nursery, where new stars are created practically before our eyes. In fact, most stars have been born in regions like W5, where hundreds or thousands stars form at the same time.
The Soul spans 300 light-years, which is about 100 times the distance from the Sun to the nearest star.
About a dozen of giant O-type stars are primarily responsible for creating this emission nebula. These giant stars are approximately 30 times heavier and 10,000 times more luminous than our Sun. This intense luminocity is mostly in the form of ultraviolet radiation. It forms a powerful stellar wind that ionizes gas molecules and drives them away from the giant stars, creating the bubble structure in the middle of the nebula.
This structure contains gas pillars that point towards the stars that created them. The pillars form because the denser gas areas take longer to clear, while the material around them is swept away by the stellar wind. The compression of the gas molecules in the pillars accelerates their gravitational collapse and leads to formation of new stars.
In the Soul Nebula, there are at least three generations of star formation. Their light travelled for 6,500 years before reaching my camera in Victoria, BC in June of 2024.
