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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Sharpless 249 and the Jellyfish Nebula
NASA ^ | 27 Feb, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Katelyn Beecroft

Posted on 02/27/2026 11:52:40 AM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in this alluring telescopic field of view. Floating in the interstellar sea, the nebula is anchored right and left by two bright stars, Mu and Eta Geminorum, at the foot of the celestial twins. The Jellyfish Nebula itself is right of center, seen as a brighter arcing ridge of emission with dangling tentacles. In fact, this cosmic jellyfish is part of bubble-shaped supernova remnant IC 443, the expanding debris cloud from a massive star that exploded. Light from the explosion first reached planet Earth over 30,000 years ago. Like its cousin in astrophysical waters the Crab Nebula supernova remnant, the Jellyfish Nebula is known to harbor a neutron star, the ultradense remnant of the collapsed stellar core. An emission nebula cataloged as Sharpless 249 fills the field at the upper left. The Jellyfish Nebula is about 5,000 light-years away. At that distance, this image would be about 300 light-years across.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

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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.

1 posted on 02/27/2026 11:52:40 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 02/27/2026 11:52:59 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

πŸͺ 🌟 🌌 πŸ”

3 posted on 02/27/2026 11:53:46 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Wow.


4 posted on 02/27/2026 12:05:25 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: MtnClimber
The Jellyfish Nebula itself is right of center, seen as a brighter arcing ridge of emission with dangling tentacles
To me, it looks more like a hermit crab than a jellyfish.
5 posted on 02/27/2026 12:06:58 PM PST by eastsider
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To: MtnClimber

They call it the Jellyfish nebula because it just sits there.

Jellyfish* (v.) to sit around like a jellyfish on the beach and do nothing

😁

* This was a slang term when I was growing up.

“We planned to go out and do something, but so-and-so jellyfished.”


6 posted on 02/27/2026 12:14:52 PM PST by Disambiguator
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To: MtnClimber

Very nice!


7 posted on 02/27/2026 1:55:32 PM PST by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: MtnClimber

8 posted on 02/27/2026 3:04:09 PM PST by DannyTN
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