Astronomy Picture of the Day - Between Scylla and Charybdis: A Double Cosmic Discovery

NASA ^ | 9 Jun, 2025 | Image Credit: M. Drechsler, Y. Sainty, A. Soto, N. Martino, L. Leroux-Gere, S. Khallouqui, & A. Kaeo

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Can you identify this celestial object? Likely not — because this is a discovery image. Massive stars forge heavy elements in their cores and, after a few million years, end their lives in powerful supernova explosions. These remnants cool relatively quickly and fade, making them difficult to detect. To uncover such faint, previously unknown supernova remnants, a dedicated group of amateur astrophotographers searched through sky surveys for possible supernova remnant candidates. The result: the first-ever image of supernova remnant G115.5+9.1 — named Scylla by its discoverers—glowing faintly in the constellation of the mythological King of Aethiopia: Cepheus. Emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red, and faint emission from oxygen is shown in hues of blue. Surprisingly, another discovery lurked to the upper right: a faint, previously unknown planetary nebula candidate. In keeping with mythological tradition, it was named Charybdis (Sai 2) — a nod to the ancient Greek expression "caught between Scylla and Charybdis" from Homer’s Odyssey.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[MtnClimber]

ping to the APOD list...

[Theophilus]

You consider me the young apprentice
Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis
Hypnotized by you if I should linger
Staring at the ring around your finger

[Fledermaus]

Looks like a fly

[Fledermaus]

If you look closely you can see Vincent Price

[telescope115]

Just goes to show what advanced amateur astronomers can do.

A fascinating photo- the planetary nebula candidate is really cool!

[CopperTop]

Smurf-Grinch with a red sleeping cap on his head peeking out from behind a rock. d;^)

Yeah, I know..

[MtnClimber]

Pretty good photography.

[martin_fierro]

a nod to the ancient Greek expression "caught between Scylla and Charybdis" from Homer’s Odyssey.

And here I thought it was a nod to that Real Deep Thinker Guy, Sting.

[MtnClimber]

Between a rock and a hard place.