The Soul Nebula is a region of intense star formation along the outer Perseus Arm of the Milky Way. It is whimsically named thanks to its proximity to The Heart Nebula, lying only around 450 light years away. However, it is a little hard to know what a soul looks like, so it is also known as The Embryo Nebula given its resemblance to a young human fetus lying on its back in the mother’s womb.

Edward Barnard is the discoverer of The Soul Nebula, but he is better known for Barnard's Star in the constellation of Ophiuchus. It is the closest star to the Sun in the Northern Hemisphere and shows the greatest proper motion of all, moving about 10.4" per year.

Westerhout 5 (W5) is a radio source within the nebula, which spans an area of sky equivalent to four full Moons. Like other massive star-forming regions, such as Orion, W5 contains large cavities that were carved out by radiation and winds from the region’s most massive stars. According to the theory of triggered star formation, the carving out of these cavities pushes gas together, causing it to ignite into successive generations of new stars. The Soul Nebula contains some of the best evidence yet for the triggered star formation theory. Scientific analysis has been able to show that the ages of the stars become progressively and systematically younger as the distance from the centre of the cavities increases.

Being relatively dim, both The Heart and The Soul Nebulae are difficult to view through a telescope. It is only with very dark skies, a large aperture and some kind of high contrast filter that you can start to make out any of the nebulosity. This is where the camera has a distinct advantage and with many hours of exposures can reveal the intricate details of the sculpted dust clouds as seen in this image.