Discover the universe! Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by an astronomer.
January 11
The belt of three stars is shown in the featured image.
All of the other stars were removed from the constellation.
You can see the explanation for more detailed information.
The belt region is in gas and dust.
Matt Harbison is the author of the Marathon Remote Imaging Observatory.
You may have seen it before, but not like this. The three bright stars across this image are Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak: the belt stars of Orion. The stars in the frame have been removed to make way for clouds of glowing gas and dark dust. The Horsehead and Flame Nebulas can be seen on the lower right side of the clouds. This deep image was taken last month from the Marathon Skypark and Observatory in Marathon, Texas, USA, and required about 20 hours of exposure and was processed to reveal the gas and dust that we would really see if we were much closer. The colorful field has a famous constellation off to the upper right. One of the best studied star formation nurseries is located only about 1,500 light-years distant.
The best space images of 2021.
Tomorrow's picture: a 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.
Page 2
Discover the universe! Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by an astronomer.
January 12
The featured image shows Leonard as he appeared.
On January 2, 2022, from Siding Spring, Australia. The comet has a coma and tail.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
A picture of a comet from Australia.
The image is copyrighted by the author.
What does comet Leonard look like? We can't go there, but we can use a small telescope to look at the comet's coma and inner tails. The ion tail is made of ionized gas that is pushed outward by the solar wind. The solar wind is sculpted by the Sun's magnetic field. The tail's complex structure is due to the variable solar wind and different gas jets in the comet's nucleus. The structure in Leonard's tail can be seen moving outward from the Sun over time. The blue color of the ion tail is dominated by recombining carbon monoxide molecule, while the green color of the coma surrounding the head of the comet is created mostly by a small amount of diatomic carbon molecule. The green glow of diatomic carbon does not make it far into the ion tail because it is destroyed by sunlight in about 50 hours. The featured imagae was taken in Australia. Leonard, best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, is now headed out of the Solar System.
The picture is of open space.
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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