Messier 17 - The Omega Nebula Credit: DSS/WISE/ Giuseppe Donatiello RA: 18h 20m Dec: −16° 10′ The Omega Nebula is at 5,500 light-years from us and it spans some 15 light-years in diameter. It's considered one of the brightest and most massive star-forming regions of our galaxy. An open cluster, NGC 6618, lies embedded in the nebulosity and It is also one of the youngest clusters known, with an age of just 1 million years. Messier 17 is also designed or called as M17, Swan Nebula, Sharpless 45, RCW 160, Gum 81. Acknowledgments: This image has made use of the NASA/ IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

• The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under U.S. Government grant NAG W-2166. The images of these surveys are based on photographic data obtained using the Oschin Schmidt Telescope on Palomar Mountain and the UK Schmidt Telescope. The plates were processed into the present compressed digital form with the permission of these institutions
  • This image makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.