                        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 April 7

                     Messier 24: Sagittarius Star Cloud
             Image Credit & Copyright: Gabriel Rodrigues Santos

   Explanation: Unlike most entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog of
   deep sky objects, M24 is not a bright galaxy, star cluster, or nebula.
   It's a gap in nearby, obscuring interstellar dust clouds that allows a
   view of the distant stars in the Sagittarius spiral arm of our Milky
   Way galaxy. When you gaze at the star cloud with binoculars or small
   telescope you are looking through a window over 300 light-years wide at
   stars some 10,000 light-years or more from Earth. Sometimes called the
   Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24's luminous stars fill this gorgeous
   starscape. Covering over 3 degrees or the width of 6 full moons in the
   constellation Sagittarius, the telescopic field of view includes dark
   markings B92 and B93 just above center, along with other clouds of dust
   and glowing nebulae toward the center of the Milky Way.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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