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 April 25

                            Hubble's Cosmic Reef
                       Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI

   Explanation: These bright ridges of interstellar gas and dust are
   bathed in energetic starlight. With its sea of young stars, the massive
   star-forming region NGC 2014 has been dubbed the Cosmic Reef. Drifting
   just off shore, the smaller NGC 2020, is an expansive blue-hued
   structure erupting from a single central Wolf-Rayet star, 200,000 times
   brighter than the Sun. The cosmic frame spans some 600 light-years
   within the Large Magellanic Cloud 160,000 light-years away, a satellite
   galaxy of our Milky Way. A magnificent Hubble Space Telescope portrait,
   the image was released this week as part of a celebration to mark
   Hubble's 30th year exploring the Universe from Earth orbit.

                    Tomorrow's picture: 100th Anniversary
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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