The Phipoea AA-A h486 nebula, nicknamed the Shield nebula, is one of the closest "large" nebulae to Sagittarius A*. There are three others closer, including the G2 Dust Cloud, but those are either faint or rather small. This one, however, is quite large: it's over 100 ly in diameter.

The Shield nebula got its name from how it looks to explorers approaching it from the centre. Viewed from that direction, it appears as a dark nebula with a smaller cloud in its center, where the shield's boss would be:

However, once an explorer moves to the side, more colours appear: the nebula houses blue and purple parts as well.

Since it's located 500 ly above the galactic plane, and only around 2,500 ly from Sagittarius A*, the star density here is incredibly high. There are thousands of systems located in and around the cloud, many of them still undiscovered. For explorers who wish to discover new worlds near a nebula, this should make for a good destination.

An interesting nearby system is Phipoea HJ-D c27-5254, where the 3 a moon, nicknamed the "Silver Highway", orbits relatively close to its parent gas giant's ring. At a 1,611 km distance, they are close enough that Commanders can see the individual rocks of the ring, and watch as they fly through the sky above.

The Phipoea AA-A h486 nebula, nicknamed the Shield nebula, is one of the closest "large" nebulae to Sagittarius A*. There are three others closer, including the G2 Dust Cloud, but those are either faint or rather small. This one, however, is quite large: it's over 100 ly in diameter.

The Shield nebula got its name from how it looks to explorers approaching it from the centre. Viewed from that direction, it appears as a dark nebula with a smaller cloud in its center, where the shield's boss would be:

However, once an explorer moves to the side, more colours appear: the nebula houses blue and purple parts as well.

Since it's located 500 ly above the galactic plane, and only around 2,500 ly from Sagittarius A*, the star density here is incredibly high. There are thousands of systems located in and around the cloud, many of them still undiscovered. For explorers who wish to discover new worlds near a nebula, this should make for a good destination.

An interesting nearby system is Phipoea HJ-D c27-5254, where the 3 a moon, nicknamed the "Silver Highway", orbits relatively close to its parent gas giant's ring. At a 1,611 km distance, they are close enough that Commanders can see the individual rocks of the ring, and watch as they fly through the sky above.