                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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.

                               2021 October 1

                  The Central Milky Way from Lagoon to Pipe
             Image Credit & Copyright: Gabriel Rodrigues Santos

   Explanation: Dark markings and colorful clouds inhabit this stellar
   landscape. The deep and expansive view spans more than 30 full moons
   across crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.
   Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard, the
   obscuring interstellar dust clouds seen toward the right include B59,
   B72, B77 and B78, part of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud complex a mere
   450 light-years away. To the eye their combined shape suggests a pipe
   stem and bowl, and so the dark nebula's popular name is the Pipe
   Nebula. Three bright nebulae gathered on the left are stellar nurseries
   some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Sagittarius. In
   the 18th century astronomer Charles Messier included two of them in his
   catalog of bright clusters and nebulae; M8, the largest of the triplet,
   and colorful M20 just above. The third prominent emission region
   includes NGC 6559 at the far left. Itself divided by obscuring dust
   lanes, M20 is also known as the Trifid. M8's popular moniker is the
   Lagoon Nebula.

                    Tomorrow's picture: welcome to spring
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