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Credit & Copyright: Ireneusz Nowak
Explanation:
Behold one of the most photogenic regions of the night sky, captured impressively.
Featured, the band of our
Milky Way Galaxy runs diagonally along the bottom-left corner,
while the colorful
Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is visible just right of center
and the large red circular
Zeta Ophiuchi
Nebula appears near the top.
In general, red emanates from
nebulas glowing in the light of
excited hydrogen gas, while blue marks interstellar dust preferentially
reflecting the light of bright young stars.
Thick dust usually appears
dark brown.
Many iconic objects of the night sky
appear, including (can you find them?) the bright star
Antares, the
globular
star cluster
M4, and the
Blue Horsehead nebula.
This wide field composite, taken over 17 hours,
was captured from
South Africa last June.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day