Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The Pipe Nebula

NASA ^ | November 23, 2012 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: East of Antares, dark markings sprawl through crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds include B59, B72, B77 and B78, seen in silhouette against the starry background. Here, their combined shape suggests a pipe stem and bowl, and so the dark nebula's popular name is the Pipe Nebula. The deep and expansive view was represents nearly 24 hours of exposure time recorded in very dark skies of the Chilean Atacama desert. It covers a full 10 by 10 degree field in the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus. The Pipe Nebula is part of the Ophiuchus dark cloud complex located at a distance of about 450 light-years. Dense cores of gas and dust within the Pipe Nebula are collapsing to form stars.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Institution for Science)]

[SunkenCiv]

I hope your Thanksgiving was great, and all your loved ones are well.

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[GeronL]

bump

We all have stomach aches from eating too much.

Might be down to Ramen Noodles and TV dinners next year, you never know

[onyx]

Publication Date:
01/1919

WOW!

[Lowell1775]

1 How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory!
How plainly it shows what he has done!
2 Each day announces it to the following day;
each night repeats it to the next.
3 No speech or words are used,
no sound is heard;
4 yet their message goes out to all the world
and is heard to the ends of the earth.
Psalm 19

Thank you for both posts. Beautiful. One very brief. One almost timeless. Keeps things in perspective, eh?