APOD: 2021 December 24

Discover the universe! Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by an astronomer.

December 24 of 2021.
See the explanation. Clicking on the picture will bring you to the download page.
The highest resolution version is available.

The Crab Nebula is M1.
Michael Sherick has the rights to the image.

The Crab Nebula is the first object on the list of things that are not comets. The Crab is a remnant from the death explosion of a massive star, which was witnessed in the year 1054. The telescopic view combines broadband color data with narrowband data that tracks emission from ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms to explore the tangled filaments within the still expanding cloud. The Crab Pulsar, a star spinning 30 times a second, is visible as a bright spot in the sky. The Crab's emission is powered by a collapsed remnant of the stellar core. The Crab Nebula is 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched.
The picture is a Christmas comet.

Robert Nemiroff is an author and Jerry Bonnell is an editor.
Phillip Newman has specific rights.
NASA has a privacy policy on the internet.
There is a service at NASA.
& Michigan Tech. U.

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Discover the universe! Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by an astronomer.

December 25th, 2021.
See the explanation. Clicking on the picture will bring you to the download page.
The highest resolution version is available.

The tail of a Christmas comet.
The image is copyrighted by Lukas Demetz andRolando Ligustri.

The tail of a comet is visible in this telescopic field of view. Leonard is this year's brightest comet, it reached naked eye visibility a few days ago. The comet can be seen close to the western horizon after sunset. The comet's coma has a greenish tinge and the comet's ion tail has magnetic fields in the solar wind. Leonard is heading toward perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun on January 3rd, after passing closest to Earth on December 12. In late December, after sunset, there is a beautiful evening sky with a comet named Leonard.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched.
The sky is icy tomorrow.

Robert Nemiroff is an author and Jerry Bonnell is an editor.
Phillip Newman has specific rights.
NASA has a privacy policy on the internet.
There is a service at NASA.
& Michigan Tech. U.