Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2021 February 8

                   WR32 and Interstellar Clouds in Carina
                 Image Credit & Copyright: Ariel Cappelletti

   Explanation: Stars can be like artists. With interstellar gas as a
   canvas, a massive and tumultuous Wolf-Rayet star has created the
   picturesque ruffled half-circular filaments called WR32, on the image
   left. Additionally, the winds and radiation from a small cluster of
   stars, NGC 3324, have sculpted a 35 light year cavity on the upper
   right, with its right side appearing as a recognizable face in profile.
   This region's popular name is the Gabriela Mistral Nebula for the
   famous Chilean poet. Together, these interstellar clouds lie about
   8,000 light-years away in the Great Carina Nebula, a complex stellar
   neighborhood harboring numerous clouds of gas and dust rich with
   imagination inspiring shapes. The featured telescopic view captures
   these nebulae's characteristic emission from ionized sulfur, hydrogen,
   and oxygen atoms mapped to the red, green, and blue hues of the popular
   Hubble Palette.

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