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 June 18

                           The Tadpoles of IC 410
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Trevor Jones

   Explanation: This telescopic close-up shows off the central regions of
   otherwise faint emission nebula IC 410, captured under backyard
   suburban skies with narrowband filters. It also features two remarkable
   inhabitants of the cosmic pond of gas and dust. Below and right of
   center are the tadpoles of IC 410. Partly obscured by foreground dust,
   the nebula itself surrounds NGC 1893, a young galactic cluster of
   stars. Formed in the interstellar cloud a mere 4 million years ago, the
   intensely hot, bright cluster stars energize the glowing gas. Composed
   of denser cooler gas and dust, the tadpoles are around 10 light-years
   long and are likely sites of ongoing star formation. Sculpted by
   stellar winds and radiation their heads are outlined by bright ridges
   of ionized gas while their tails trail away from the cluster's central
   young stars. IC 410 lies some 10,000 light-years away, toward the
   nebula-rich constellation Auriga.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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