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 22

                               South of Carina
               Image Credit & Copyright: Ignacio Diaz Bobillo

   Explanation: With natal dust clouds in silhouette against glowing
   atomic gas, this colorful and chaotic vista lies within one of the
   largest star forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy, the Great Carina
   Nebula. The telescopic close-up frames a field of view about 80
   light-years across, a little south and east of Eta Carinae, the
   nebula's most energetic and enigmatic star. Captured under suburban
   skies improved during national restrictions, a composite of narrowband
   image data was used to create the final image. In it, characteristic
   emission from the nebula's ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms
   is mapped to red, green, and blue hues, a color palette also popular in
   Hubble Space Telescope images. The celestial landscape of bright ridges
   of emission bordered by cool, obscuring dust lies about 7,500
   light-years away toward the southern constellation Carina.

                      Tomorrow's picture: ghostly glow
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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