﻿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]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. 2020 March 10 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Wide Field: Fox Fur, Unicorn, and Christmas Tree Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Greg Gurdak Explanation: What do the following things have in common: a cone, the fur of a fox, and a Christmas tree? Answer: they all occur in the constellation of the unicorn ([4]Monoceros). Pictured as a star forming region and [5]cataloged as NGC 2264, the complex jumble of cosmic gas and dust is about 2,700 light-years distant and mixes reddish [6]emission nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars [7]with dark interstellar dust clouds. Where the otherwise obscuring dust clouds lie close to the hot, young stars they also reflect starlight, forming blue [8]reflection nebulae. The featured wide-field image spans over three times the diameter of a [9]full moon, covering over 100 [10]light-years at the distance of NGC 2264. Its cast of cosmic characters includes the [11]Fox Fur Nebula, whose convoluted pelt lies just to the lower right of the image center, bright [12]variable star [13]S Mon visible just above the Fox Fur, and the [14]Cone Nebula just to the left. Given their distribution, the stars of NGC 2264 are also known as the [15]Christmas Tree star cluster. Tomorrow's picture: extreme boom __________________________________________________________________ [16]< | [17]Archive | [18]Submissions | [19]Index | [20]Search | [21]Calendar | [22]RSS | [23]Education | [24]About APOD | [25]Discuss | [26]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [27]Robert Nemiroff ([28]MTU) & [29]Jerry Bonnell ([30]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [31]Specific rights apply. [32]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [33]ASD at [34]NASA / [35]GSFC & [36]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2003/ConeTreeWide_Gurdak_3883.jpg 3. mailto: gamma471 at gmail dot com 4. http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/mon/index.html 5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2264 6. http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/emission_nebulae.html 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080508.html 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081031.html 9. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/676/phases-of-the-moon/ 10. http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/Numbers/Math/Mathematical_Thinking/how_long_is_a_light_year.htm 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080422.html 12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXJBrRmHPj8 13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_Monocerotis 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140528.html 15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Tree_Cluster 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200309.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 20. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 25. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200310 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200311.html 27. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 28. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 29. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 30. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 32. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 33. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 34. https://www.nasa.gov/ 35. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 36. http://www.mtu.edu/