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.

                                2020 March 10

              Wide Field: Fox Fur, Unicorn, and Christmas Tree
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Greg Gurdak

   Explanation: What do the following things have in common: a cone, the
   fur of a fox, and a Christmas tree? Answer: they all occur in the
   constellation of the unicorn (Monoceros). Pictured as a star forming
   region and cataloged as NGC 2264, the complex jumble of cosmic gas and
   dust is about 2,700 light-years distant and mixes reddish emission
   nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars with dark
   interstellar dust clouds. Where the otherwise obscuring dust clouds lie
   close to the hot, young stars they also reflect starlight, forming blue
   reflection nebulae. The featured wide-field image spans over three
   times the diameter of a full moon, covering over 100 light-years at the
   distance of NGC 2264. Its cast of cosmic characters includes the Fox
   Fur Nebula, whose convoluted pelt lies just to the lower right of the
   image center, bright variable star S Mon visible just above the Fox
   Fur, and the Cone Nebula just to the left. Given their distribution,
   the stars of NGC 2264 are also known as the Christmas Tree star
   cluster.

                      Tomorrow's picture: extreme boom
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