Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Fri Mar 08 2019 08:20:44 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2019 March 8 [2] Stardust and Starlight in M78 Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Richard S. Wright Jr. [4] Explanation: Interstellar [5] dust clouds and bright nebulae abound in the fertile constellation of Orion. One of the brightest, M78 [6] , is near the center in this colorful telescopic view, covering an area [7] north of Orion's belt. At a distance of about 1,500 light-years, the bluish nebula itself is about 5 light-years across. Its blue tint is due to dust preferentially [8] reflecting the blue light [9] of hot, young stars in the region. Dark dust lanes and other nebulae can easily be traced through the gorgeous skyscape that includes many Herbig- Haro objects [10] , energetic jets from stars in the process of formation. But missing from this image is McNeil's nebula. A major discovery [11] only recognized in 2004, the enigmatic, variable nebula was found along the dark lane of dust above and right of larger M78. McNeil's nebula is associated with a protostar and seen to be sometimes present and sometimes absent in photos of the well-imaged region. McNeil's nebula faded [12] from view late last year and is still absent in this deep image recorded in February 2019. Tomorrow's picture: ski Enceladus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [13] | Archive [14] | Submissions [15] | Index [16] | Search [17] | Calendar [18] | RSS [19] | Education [20] | About APOD [21] | Discuss [22] | > [23] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [24] (MTU [25] ) & Jerry Bonnell [26] (UMCP [27] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [28] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [29] A service of: ASD [30] at NASA [31] / GSFC [32] & Michigan Tech. U. [33] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] image/1903/M78_RGBwright.jpg [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [4] http://eveningshow.com [5] http://www-ssg.sr.unh.edu/ism/what1.html [6] http://www.messier.seds.org/m/m078.html [7] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/messier-78 [8] http://leo.astronomy.cz/mix/mix.html [9] http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/ BlueSky/blue_sky.html [10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Herbig%E2%80%93Haro_object#Discovery_and_history_of_observations [11] ap040219.html [12] https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/ the-case-of-the-vanishing-nebula/ [13] ap190307.html [14] archivepix.html [15] lib/apsubmit2015.html [16] lib/aptree.html [17] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [18] calendar/allyears.html [19] /apod.rss [20] lib/edlinks.html [21] lib/about_apod.html [22] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190308 [23] ap190309.html [24] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [25] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [26] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [27] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [28] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [29] http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [30] http://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [31] http://www.nasa.gov/ [32] http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [33] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .