         APOD: 2018 March 23 - Sharpless 249 and the Jellyfish Nebula

                         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.

                                2018 March 23
                                      [2]
                    Sharpless 249 and the Jellyfish Nebula
                Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Albert Barr [4]

Explanation: Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in
this alluring telescopic image. Centered in the scene it's anchored right and
left by two bright stars, Mu [5] and Eta [6] Geminorum, at the foot of the
celestial twin [7] . The Jellyfish Nebula is the brighter arcing ridge of
emission with dangling tentacles. In fact, the cosmic jellyfish is part of
bubble-shaped supernova remnant IC 443 [8] , the expanding debris cloud from a
massive star that exploded [9] . Light from the explosion first reached planet
Earth over 30,000 years ago. Like its cousin in astrophysical [10]  waters the
Crab Nebula [11] supernova remnant, the Jellyfish Nebula is known to harbor
[12]  a neutron star, the remnant of the collapsed stellar core. An emission
nebula cataloged as Sharpless [13]  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.

                    Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend [14]

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1803/IC443_HaRGB2048.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://www.shutterstock.com/g/ajbarr
  [5] http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/tejat.html
  [6] http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/propus.html
  [7] http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/gem/index.html
  [8] ap060602.html
  [9] http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/supernovas.html
  [10] http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.2198
  [11] ap180317.html
  [12] http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/1083/index.html
  [13] http://galaxymap.org/cat/list/sharpless/1
  [14] ap180324.html
  [15] ap180322.html
  [16] archivepix.html
  [17] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [18] lib/aptree.html
  [19] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [20] calendar/allyears.html
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  [23] lib/about_apod.html
  [24] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180323
  [25] ap180324.html
  [26] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [27] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [28] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [29] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [30] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
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