Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                 2019 March 8
                                      [2]
                        Stardust and Starlight in M78
           Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Richard S. Wright Jr. [4]

Explanation: Interstellar [5] dust clouds and bright nebulae abound in the
fertile constellation of Orion. One of the brightest, M78 [6] , is near the
center in this colorful telescopic view, covering an area [7]  north of
Orion's belt. At a distance of about 1,500 light-years, the bluish nebula
itself is about 5 light-years across. Its blue tint is due to dust
preferentially [8] reflecting the blue light [9] of hot, young stars in the
region. Dark dust lanes and other nebulae can easily be traced through the
gorgeous skyscape that includes many Herbig- Haro objects [10] , energetic
jets from stars in the process of formation. But missing from this image is
McNeil's nebula. A major discovery [11] only recognized in 2004, the
enigmatic, variable nebula was found along the dark lane of dust above and
right of larger M78. McNeil's nebula is associated with a protostar and seen
to be sometimes present and sometimes absent in photos of the well-imaged
region. McNeil's nebula faded [12] from view late last year and is still
absent in this deep image recorded in February 2019.

                      Tomorrow's picture: ski Enceladus

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [24] (MTU [25] ) & Jerry Bonnell [26]
                                  (UMCP [27] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [28] .
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1903/M78_RGBwright.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://eveningshow.com
  [5] http://www-ssg.sr.unh.edu/ism/what1.html
  [6] http://www.messier.seds.org/m/m078.html
  [7] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/mes...
  [8] http://leo.astronomy.cz/mix/mix.html
  [9] http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General... BlueSky/blue_sky.html
  [10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Herbig%E2%80%93Haro_object#Discovery_and_history_of_observations
  [11] ap040219.html
  [12] https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-new...
the-case-of-the-vanishing-nebula/
  [13] ap190307.html
  [14] archivepix.html
  [15] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [16] lib/aptree.html
  [17] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod...
  [18] calendar/allyears.html
  [19] /apod.rss
  [20] lib/edlinks.html
  [21] lib/about_apod.html
  [22] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
  [23] ap190309.html
  [24] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [25] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [26] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell...
  [27] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [28] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [29] http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priva...
  [30] http://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [31] http://www.nasa.gov/
  [32] http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [33] http://www.mtu.edu/

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