Sunday, November 1, 2015

Infrared Trifid

Infrared Trifid: APOD: 2015 July 25 - Infrared Trifid



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.


2015 July 25


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.



Infrared Trifid
Image Credit: J. Rho (SSC/Caltech), JPL-Caltech, NASA
Explanation: The Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope, a well known stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. But where visible light pictures show the nebula divided into three parts by dark, obscuring dust lanes, this penetrating infrared image reveals filaments of glowing dust clouds and newborn stars. The spectacular false-color view is courtesy of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers have used the Spitzer infrared image data to count newborn and embryonic stars which otherwise can lie hidden in the natal dust and gas clouds of this intriguing stellar nursery. As seen here, the Trifid is about 30 light-years across and lies only 5,500 light-years away.

Tomorrow's picture: Sombrero Sunday

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