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A luminous triangular-shaped nebula in the constellation Monoceros. From photographs taken between 1900 and 1916, Edwin Hubble discovered that the nebula varied in shape and brightness. An irregularly variable star, R Monocerotis, is embedded in the nebula. R Mon is a strong source of infrared radiation and is probably a very young star surrounded by a circumstellar disc and ejecting a bipolar outflow. The nebula is now thought to be an example of a Herbig-Haro object. Light from the star reflected from interstellar dust is also seen.
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