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 July 6

                M43: Dust, Gas, and Stars in the Orion Nebula
    Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Bryan
                                    Goff

   Explanation: Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found
   together in the Orion Nebula Arguably the most famous of all astronomy
   nebulas, the Great Nebula in Orion is an immense interstellar molecular
   cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the featured deep image shown in
   assigned colors, the part of the nebula's center known as M43 is shown
   as taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The Great Nebula in Orion can
   be found with the unaided eye near the easily identifiable belt of
   three stars in the popular constellation Orion. The entire Orion
   Nebula, including both M42 and M43 spans about 40 light years and is
   located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.

                    Tomorrow's picture: mercury extended
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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