                        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 August 10

                      Dust Clouds of the Pacman Nebula
      Image Credit & Copyright: Douglas J. Struble (Future World Media)

   Explanation: Stars can create huge and intricate dust sculptures from
   the dense and dark molecular clouds from which they are born. The tools
   the stars use to carve their detailed works are high energy light and
   fast stellar winds. The heat they generate evaporates the dark
   molecular dust as well as causing ambient hydrogen gas to disperse and
   glow red. Pictured here, a new open cluster of stars designated IC 1590
   is nearing completion around the intricate interstellar dust structures
   in the emission nebula NGC 281, dubbed the Pac-man Nebula because of
   its overall shape. The dust cloud on the upper left is classified as a
   Bok Globule as it may gravitationally collapse and form a star -- or
   stars. The Pacman Nebula lies about 10,000 light years away toward the
   constellation of Cassiopeia.

                      Tomorrow's picture: MAGIC meteors
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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