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 May 11

                              Behind Betelgeuse
    Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Steward Observatory, University
                                 of Arizona

   Explanation: What's behind Betelgeuse? One of the brighter and more
   unusual stars in the sky, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse can be
   found in the direction of famous constellation Orion. Betelgeuse,
   however, is actually well in front of many of the constellation's other
   bright stars, and also in front of the greater Orion Molecular Cloud
   Complex. Numerically, light takes about 700 years to reach us from
   Betelgeuse, but about 1,300 years to reach us from the Orion Nebula and
   its surrounding dust and gas. All but the largest telescopes see
   Betelgeuse as only a point of light, but a point so bright that the
   inherent blurriness created by the telescope and Earth's atmosphere
   make it seem extended. In the featured long-exposure image, thousands
   of stars in our Milky Way Galaxy can be seen in the background behind
   Betelgeuse, as well as dark dust from the Orion Molecular Cloud, and
   some red-glowing emission from hydrogen gas on the outskirts of the
   more distant Lambda Orionis Ring. Betelgeuse has recovered from
   appearing unusually dim over the past six months, but is still expected
   to explode in a spectacular supernova sometime in the next (about)
   100,000 years.

                   Tomorrow's picture: little harp meteors
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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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