                        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 March 7

                               A Lion in Orion
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Maroun Mahfoud

   Explanation: Yes, but can you see the lion? A deep exposure shows the
   famous dark indentation that looks like a horse's head, visible just
   left and below center, and known unsurprisingly as the Horsehead
   Nebula. The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) is part of a vast complex of
   dark absorbing dust and bright glowing gas. To bring out details of the
   Horsehead's pasture, an astrophotographer artistically combined light
   accumulated for over 20 hours in hydrogen (orange), oxygen (blue), and
   sulfur (green). The resulting spectacular picture captured from
   Raachine, Lebanon, details an intricate tapestry of gaseous wisps and
   dust-laden filaments that were created and sculpted over eons by
   stellar winds and ancient supernovas. The featured composition brings
   up another pareidolic animal icon -- that of a lion's head -- in the
   expansive orange colored gas above the horse's head. The Flame Nebula
   is visible just to the left of the Horsehead. The Horsehead Nebula lies
   1,500 light years distant towards the constellation of Orion.

                   Tomorrow's picture: oddly inverted moon
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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