North America Nebula
What is North America Nebula?
Nebulae· Distance 2,600 ly. A nebula next to Deneb that glows in the outline of a map of North America, its "Gulf of Mexico" cut by a dark dust lane, with the Pelican Nebula continuing to the west. One of the most photographed targets in the summer Milky Way.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where North America Nebula is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=north america nebula — location and time set automatically, no login.
Its place in the sky
A nebula, in the direction of Cygnus, spanning about 120 arcminutes of sky — 3.9 times the width of the full Moon.
Distance and scale
| Distance | ~2,600 ly |
|---|---|
| Size | ~100 ly (4 full Moons) |
| Type | emission nebula |
| Constellation | Cygnus |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Discovery and name
Seen by Herschel in 1786; Max Wolf named it in 1890 from a photograph showing the continent's shape.
Frequently asked
- How far is North America Nebula from Earth?
- ~2,600 ly.
- What kind of object is North America Nebula?
- emission nebula.
- Where in the sky is North America Nebula?
- In the direction of Cygnus.
- Where is North America Nebula in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
Who switched on the light — the hidden star found only in 2004
The North America Nebula was long a "nebula without a lamp". Lighting a hydrogen cloud this size red requires a hot O-type star, and Deneb next door is too cool while no other candidate could be seen. Only in 2004 was a single star confirmed in infrared, hidden behind the dark dust lane between the North America and Pelican nebulae — an O5 star too obscured to show in visible light.
Its position, right at the "Atlantic", was the answer. The dark lane is a molecular cloud lying in front of the nebula, and with the lamp just behind it, the North America and the Pelican are revealed as two sides of one cloud. The nebula's distance also came from this star, and with Gaia data fixing it at about 2,600 light-years the true diameter of 100 light-years was computed. Deneb is merely a neighbour seen beside it, at a different distance in the foreground.
The nebula in depth
The North America Nebula (NGC 7000) is an emission nebula about 3° east of Deneb in Cygnus. It lies some 2,600 light-years away, spans roughly 100 light-years, and covers four full-Moon widths of sky. Max Wolf first photographed it in 1890, and its uncanny resemblance to the continent gave it the name.
The nebula and the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070) to its west are one enormous hydrogen cloud; the dark "Atlantic" between them is a foreground dust cloud blocking the light. What illuminates the cloud was a mystery for decades until infrared surveys in the 2000s identified a hot star hidden behind the dust, the "Bajamar Star" (J205551.3+435225). Thousands of newborn stars lie buried inside.
In the Sky view, find Deneb overhead on summer evenings and look just to its southeast. The surface brightness is low, so to the naked eye it merely reads as a brighter patch of Milky Way; from a dark site binoculars hint at the continental outline. A camera exposure of a few minutes records the Gulf of Mexico crisply.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.