The Heart Nebula, IC 1805, Sharpless 2-190, lies some 7500 light years
away from Earth and is located in the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy in the
constellation Cassiopeia. This is an emission nebula showing glowing
ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes.

The very brightest part of this nebula (the knot at the western edge)
is separately classified as NGC 896, because it was the first part of
this nebula to be discovered.

The nebula's intense red output and its configuration are driven by
the radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula's
center. This open cluster of stars known as Melotte 15 contains a few
bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, and many more dim
stars that are only a fraction of our Sun's mass.