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.
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. Explanation:Spookyshapes seem to haunt this dusty expanse, drifting through the night in the royal constellationCepheus. Of course,the shapesare cosmic dust clouds visible in dimly reflected starlight. Far fromyour own neighborhood, they lurk above the plane of the Milky Way at the edge of theCepheus Flaremolecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away. Over 2 light-years across and brighter than most of the other ghostly apparitions, vdB 141 or Sh2-136 is also known as theGhost Nebula. It lies at lower right in the starry field of view. Inside the Ghost Nebula are reddish telltale signs of dense cores collapsing in the early stagesof star formation. With the eerie hue of interstellar dust reflecting bluish light from hot young stars ofNGC 7023, the Iris Nebulastands out against the dark just left of center.In the broad telescopic frame, these fertile interstellar dust fields stretch almost six full moons across the sky.Tomorrow's picture:night on a spooky planet