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 September 4

                              The Wizard Nebula
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Andrew Klinger

   Explanation: Open star cluster NGC 7380 is still embedded in its natal
   cloud of interstellar gas and dust popularly known as the Wizard
   Nebula. Seen on the left, with foreground and background stars along
   the plane of our Milky Way galaxy it lies some 8,000 light-years
   distant, toward the constellation Cepheus. In apparent size on the sky,
   a full moon would cover the 4 million year young cluster and associated
   nebula, normally much too faint to be seen by eye. Made with telescope
   and camera firmly planted on Earth, the image reveals multi light-year
   sized shapes and structures of cosmic gas and dust within the Wizard
   though, in a color palette made popular in Hubble Space Telescope
   images. Recorded with narrowband filters, the visible wavelength light
   from the nebula's hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur atoms is transformed
   into green, blue, and red colors in the final digital composite.

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