It glides serenely through northern Sagittarius, far above the spout of the Teapot asterism as it sits ... Spanning some 11', the Swan Nebula looks like its namesake, with a long flat "body ...

The object takes its name from the Solar Wind ANisotropies, or SWAN, instrument on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, spacecraft, a joint project of the European Space Agency and NASA.