Astronomy Picture of the Day
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.
2016 September 8 
Posted on 09/08/2016 6:05:15 AM PDT by ThomasMore
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.
2016 September 8
Explanation: Wandering through this stunning field of view, Mars really is in front of these colorful cosmic clouds. The mosaic contructed from telescopic images is about 5 degrees (10 full moons) across. It captures the planet's position on August 26, over 7 light-minutes from Earth and very near the line-of-sight to bright star Antares and the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. In the exposure yellow-hued Mars, above and left, is almost matched by Antares, also known as Alpha Scorpii, below center. Globular star cluster M4 shines just right of Antares, but M4 lies some 7,000 light-years away compared to Antares' 500 light-year distance. Slightly closer than Antares, Rho Ophiuchi's bluish starlight is reflected by the dusty molecular clouds near the top of the frame.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
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They cloud formation in the upper right look like SATAN reaching out for Mars...................
For those who don't know, ONE light-year, the DISTANCE light travels in a year, at its speed of 186,000 miles per second, works out to about 5.9 TRILLION miles. That's 5,900 times a BILLION... for ONE light year. Mars, on the other hand, currently lies approximately 80 million miles away.
That Rho Ophichichu is so beautiful. Yes, it does look like a blue tear. I hope I spelled that beauty correctly...
Nope. I added an extra “chu.”. Choo-choo train must have been on my mind!
Thank you for posting these fabulous images!
Nope. I added an extra “chu.”. Choo-choo train must have been on my mind!
Thank you for posting these fabulous images!
Someday that dust will organize into stars and planets.
The planets may spawn intelligence.
Who knows if they would wonder if they were predicted by earlier intelligence?
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