                        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.

                               2022 January 11

                     Orion's Belt Region in Gas and Dust
     Image Credit & Copyright: Matt Harbison (Space4Everybody), Marathon
                         Remote Imaging Observatory

   Explanation: You may have seen Orion's belt before -- but not like
   this. The three bright stars across this image are, from left to right,
   Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak: the iconic belt stars of Orion. The rest
   of the stars in the frame have been digitally removed to highlight the
   surrounding clouds of glowing gas and dark dust. Some of these clouds
   have intriguing shapes, including the Horsehead and Flame Nebulas, both
   near Alnitak on the lower right. This deep image, taken last month from
   the Marathon Skypark and Observatory in Marathon, Texas, USA, spans
   about 5 degrees, required about 20 hours of exposure, and was processed
   to reveal the gas and dust that we would really see if we were much
   closer. The famous Orion Nebula is off to the upper right of this
   colorful field. The entire region lies only about 1,500 light-years
   distant and so is one of the closest and best studied star formation
   nurseries known.

        Tonight: APOD Editor to Present the Best Space Images of 2021
                     Tomorrow's picture: comet close-up
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

