Astronomy Picture of the Day 11-02-02

NASA ^ | 11-02-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

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.

2002 November 2

NGC 604: Giant Stellar Nursery
Credit: H. Yang (UIUC), HST, NASA

Explanation: Scattered within this cavernous nebula, cataloged as NGC 604, are over 200 newly formed hot, massive, stars. At 1,500 light-years across, this expansive cloud of interstellar gas and dust is effectively a giant stellar nursery located some three million light-years distant in the spiral galaxy, M33. The newborn stars irradiate the gas with energetic ultraviolet light stripping electrons from atoms and producing a characteristic nebular glow. The details of the nebula's structure hold clues to the mysteries of star formation and galaxy evolution.

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Fun Fact:

Isn't the Hubble Space Telescope amazing? This beautiful nebula isn't even in our galaxy!
It's located in M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, about 3 million light years away!

Here's a great comparison image. Palomar is home of a 200-inch telescope, for years the largest in the world.
But just compare its resolution with that of HST!

[petuniasevan]

[Freedom2specul8]

I look forward to these *every day*..you guys are awesome!

[firewalk]

Thank you (-:

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just amazing.