                         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 April 4
                                      [2]
                                  Messier 2
        Image Credit: ESA/Hubble [3]  & NASA [4] , G. Piotto et al. [5]

Explanation: After the Crab Nebula [6] , M1, this giant star cluster is the
second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of
things with are not comets. M2 is one of the largest globular star clusters
now known to roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though Messier originally
described it a nebula without stars, this stunning Hubble image [7]  resolves
stars across the central 40 light-years of M2. Its population [8] of stars
numbers close to 150,000, concentrated within a total diameter of around 175
light-years. About 55,000 light-years distant toward the constellation
Aquarius, this ancient denizen of the Milky Way, also known as NGC 7089 [9] ,
is 13 billion years old.

                      Tomorrow's picture: Maui Milky Way

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [21] (MTU [22] ) & Jerry Bonnell [23]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1904/potw1913aa.jpg
  [3] https://spacetelescope.org
  [4] https://www.nasa.gov
  [5] https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.4564
  [6] ap180104.html
  [7] https://spacetelescope.org/images/potw1913a/
  [8] http://www.messier.seds.org/m/m002.html
  [9] https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.05949
  [10] ap190403.html
  [11] archivepix.html
  [12] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [13] lib/aptree.html
  [14] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [15] calendar/allyears.html
  [16] /apod.rss
  [17] lib/edlinks.html
  [18] lib/about_apod.html
  [19] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190404
  [20] ap190405.html
  [21] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [22] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [23] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [24] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [25] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [26] http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [27] http://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [28] http://www.nasa.gov/
  [29] http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [30] http://www.mtu.edu/
