Unicorns and roses – it would seem that the combination can be found only in fairy tales. However, NASA Infrared Telescope Facility Wide (Wide-field Infrared Explorer, WISE) has recently received image Rosette Nebula, which is located exactly in the constellation Unicorn. This nebula, shaped like a flower located in our Galaxy and is also known under the less romantic name NGC 2237. It is a huge gas-dust cloud in which stars form. Distance to nebula is (according to different sources) from 4500 to 5000 light years of space in the center of the flower is a cluster of young stars called NGC 2244. The most massive stars emit a huge amount of ultraviolet and generate strong stellar winds that erode the surrounding dust and gas, creating a large central cavity. The radiation also cuts off the electrons from the surrounding hydrogen ionizing it and creating what astronomers call Zone H II, or the same region of ionized hydrogen. Although the Rosette Nebula is too weak (it can not be seen with the naked eye), astronomers like to Cluster NGC 2244, because it can be seen in small telescopes or with help of good binoculars.
It was opened by the English astronomer John Flamsteed with a telescope in about 1690, but the nebula was discovered about 150 years later, John Herschel (who is the son of William Herschel who discovered infrared light). In the image obtained after multiple exposures WISE, also shows a trace of a satellite flying in a light-colored stripes. This image is a combination of four pictures received four infrared detectors WISE in different colors. At the final composite image colors are subject-iconic blue and light blue represent the infrared radiation with a wavelength of 3.4 and 4.6 microns, respectively, and it preimeschestvenno stellar radiation. Green and red wavelengths are shown 12 and 22 microns, which are mainly emitted by the heated dust .