ASTRO:
     type=Supernova remnant
     const=Auriga
     mag=(unk)
     dist=11,000 ly
     size=215 ly
IMAGE:
     location=Emerald Bay community, Lake Palestine, TX
     BrtlCls=4
     moon=2% WnCr
     exposure=CMOS OSC 137x300s (11.4h)
     palette="HOO"
EQUIPMENT:
​     optics=ES102CF APO / Starizona "L" 0.65x rdcr, FL(eff.)=464mm, f(eff.)/4.55
     camera=ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro
     filter=Optolong L-eXtreme DNB
     mount=Celestron AVX EQ
     guiding= Orion 60x240mm, ZWO ASI244MC
SOFTWARE:
     acquisition=Stellarium, NINA, PHD2
     processing=PixInsight (wRCAstro), Photoshop (wAPF-R, WebSharp-Pro), LrC

What happens after a star explodes?  ...A huge fireball of hot gas expands outward in all directions.   Actually classified as a supernova remnant (SNR), the gas is heated to the point of glowing by the energy of the explosion; it then expands into the surrounding interstellar medium for hundreds of millennia; still glowing all the while.  Perhaps in a billion years or so, this gas may once again begin to coalesce together with other dust, molecular clouds and gas that it encounters as it moves through the galaxy, ...to contribute to the formation of new stars, or perhaps even planets.

This blue colored, soccer ball-looking nebula is SNR G179.0+02.6.   Commonly called the "Buckyball" nebula, it is a supernova remnant located about 11,000 light years away, and measuring appx 215 ly across.  While still expanding outward today, current analysis indicates the source star that created it detonated about 50,000 years ago.  The nearby star cluster to the left is Messier 37 (M37), also known as the "Salt & Pepper" globular cluster.  Both objects lie inside the IAU boundary of the northern constellation Auriga.

The name "Buckyball" is actually a technical term originating from the science of chemistry.  It is a short derivation from the name given to the complex molecule known as Buckminsterfullerene (or just "fullerene" for short).  Also known by its geometric shape as C60, it is a spherical molecule made-up of 60 carbon atoms bonded together at the vertices of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons.  It looks like a soccer ball, but a million times smaller.  This fascinating molecule was discovered in 1985 by three scientists who were investigating the formation of carbon clusters using a laser.  They named it after Buckminster Fuller, or "Bucky" as he was called by friends and associates.  He was a famous architect who was designing geodesic dome structures at the time, resembling a life-sized C60 molecule.

One of the most faint objects ever attempted for capture, the blue color in this image suggests the nebula consists almost entirely of OIII emissions.   The common red color of Hα is essentially non-existent; probably because any hydrogen gas that might be present is too 'cool' to be visible. 

Being present in the skies of the northern hemisphere during the month of December, the combination of early sunsets and long nights allowed for 96x300s subexposures to be captured in the first of two evenings, and 62x300s in the 2nd after being cut short by clouds.  The PixInsight SubframeSelector (SFS) process was used to cull 21 of the total 158 subs due to at least 1 of 5 measured parameters falling outside 3 standard deviations from the statistical distributions of the whole group.   The 'surviving' 137 subs were stacked together creating a master light frame with 11.4h total integrated exposure time.

251223 - SNR G179.0+02.6 "Buckyball" nebula