NGC 281 (Pacman Nebula)
E109442
NGC 281, commonly known as the Pacman Nebula, is an emission nebula and active star-forming region in the constellation Cassiopeia, notable for its distinctive shape and embedded young star cluster IC 1590.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| NGC 281 (Pacman Nebula) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T934099 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: NGC 281 (Pacman Nebula) Context triple: [Perseus Arm, contains, NGC 281 (Pacman Nebula)]
-
A.
Southern Ring Nebula
The Southern Ring Nebula is a bright, roughly 2,000-light-year-distant planetary nebula in the constellation Vela, formed from the outer layers of a dying sun-like star and notable for its intricate, colorful gas shells.
-
B.
Rosette Nebula
The Rosette Nebula is a large, circular emission nebula and active star-forming region located in the Milky Way, notable for its striking rose-like appearance in astrophotography.
-
C.
NGC 6822
NGC 6822 is a barred irregular dwarf galaxy located in the constellation Sagittarius and is one of the nearest and best-studied galaxies outside the Milky Way.
-
D.
Carina Nebula
The Carina Nebula is a vast, active star-forming region in the Milky Way known for its towering gas and dust pillars and dramatic young stellar clusters.
-
E.
IC 10
IC 10 is a nearby irregular starburst galaxy notable for its intense star formation and membership in the Local Group.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: NGC 281 (Pacman Nebula) Target entity description: NGC 281, commonly known as the Pacman Nebula, is an emission nebula and active star-forming region in the constellation Cassiopeia, notable for its distinctive shape and embedded young star cluster IC 1590.
-
A.
Southern Ring Nebula
The Southern Ring Nebula is a bright, roughly 2,000-light-year-distant planetary nebula in the constellation Vela, formed from the outer layers of a dying sun-like star and notable for its intricate, colorful gas shells.
-
B.
Rosette Nebula
The Rosette Nebula is a large, circular emission nebula and active star-forming region located in the Milky Way, notable for its striking rose-like appearance in astrophotography.
-
C.
NGC 6822
NGC 6822 is a barred irregular dwarf galaxy located in the constellation Sagittarius and is one of the nearest and best-studied galaxies outside the Milky Way.
-
D.
Carina Nebula
The Carina Nebula is a vast, active star-forming region in the Milky Way known for its towering gas and dust pillars and dramatic young stellar clusters.
-
E.
IC 10
IC 10 is a nearby irregular starburst galaxy notable for its intense star formation and membership in the Local Group.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
H II region
ⓘ
emission nebula ⓘ nebula ⓘ star-forming region ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | Pacman Nebula ⓘ |
| angularSize | ~35 arcminutes ⓘ |
| apparentMagnitudeV | 7.4 ⓘ |
| associatedWith | radio source W1 ⓘ |
| bestSeenInMonth | October ⓘ |
| bestSeenInSeason | northern autumn ⓘ |
| catalog | New General Catalogue ⓘ |
| contains |
Bok globules
ⓘ
dark dust lanes ⓘ molecular clouds ⓘ pre-main-sequence stars ⓘ young stellar objects ⓘ |
| declination | +56° 37′ ⓘ |
| discoveredBy | Edward Emerson Barnard ⓘ |
| discoveryYear | 1883 ⓘ |
| distanceFromEarth |
~2.9 kiloparsecs
ⓘ
~9500 light-years ⓘ |
| excitedBy | ultraviolet radiation from massive stars ⓘ |
| galacticLatitude | −6.31° ⓘ |
| galacticLongitude | 123.07° ⓘ |
| hasDominantEmissionLine |
H-alpha
ⓘ
[O III] ⓘ |
| hasEmbeddedStarCluster | IC 1590 ⓘ |
| hasMorphologicalType | emission nebula with dark lanes ⓘ |
| hasNebulaType | diffuse nebula ⓘ |
| hasOpenCluster | IC 1590 ⓘ |
| hasRegionDesignation |
Sharpless 184
ⓘ
linked to:
IC 1848 (Soul Nebula)
|
| hasStarFormationMode | triggered star formation ⓘ |
| ionizingSource | massive O-type stars in IC 1590 ⓘ |
| isIncludedInCatalogue |
Sharpless catalog of H II regions
ⓘ
linked to:
H II regions
|
| isInNorthernSky | true ⓘ |
| isTargetOf |
infrared surveys
ⓘ
radio observations of molecular gas ⓘ star formation studies ⓘ |
| locatedInConstellation | Cassiopeia ⓘ |
| notableFor |
active star formation
ⓘ
distinctive Pacman-like shape ⓘ |
| observedInWavelength |
infrared
ⓘ
optical ⓘ radio ⓘ |
| partOf | Perseus Spiral Arm ⓘ |
| rightAscension | 00h 52m ⓘ |
| visibleWith | small amateur telescopes under dark skies ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: NGC 281 (Pacman Nebula) Description of subject: NGC 281, commonly known as the Pacman Nebula, is an emission nebula and active star-forming region in the constellation Cassiopeia, notable for its distinctive shape and embedded young star cluster IC 1590.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.