                        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 November 19

                        NGC 281: Starless with Stars
    Image Credit & Copyright: Wido Oerlemans - X-ray: Chandra, Infrared:
                                   Spitzer

   Explanation: In visible light the stars have been removed from this
   narrow-band image of NGC 281, a star forming region some 10,000
   light-years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia. Stars were
   digitally added back to the resulting starless image though. But
   instead of using visible light image data, the stars were added with
   X-ray data (in purple) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared
   data (in red) from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The merged
   multiwavelength view reveals a multitude of stars in the region's
   embedded star cluster IC 1590. The young stars are normally hidden in
   visible light images by the natal cloud's gas and obscuring dust. Also
   known to backyard astro-imagers as the Pacman Nebula for its overall
   appearance in visible light, NGC 281 is about 80 light-years across.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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