Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]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. 2023 February 4 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. NGC 2626 along the Vela Molecular Ridge Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Mike Selby & [5]Mark Hanson Explanation: [6]Centered in this colorful cosmic canvas, [7]NGC 2626 is a beautiful, bright, blue reflection nebula in the southern Milky Way. Next to an obscuring dust cloud and surrounded by reddish hydrogen emission from large [8]H II region RCW 27 it lies within a complex of [9]dusty molecular clouds known as the [10]Vela Molecular Ridge. [11]NGC 2626 is itself a cloud of interstellar dust reflecting blue light from the young hot embedded star visible within the nebula. But astronomical [12]explorations reveal many other young stars and associated nebulae in the star-forming region. NGC 2626 is about 3,200 light-years away. At that distance this telescopic field of view would span about 30 light-years along the [13]Vela Molecular Ridge. Tomorrow's picture: moon by planetlight __________________________________________________________________ [14]< | [15]Archive | [16]Submissions | [17]Index | [18]Search | [19]Calendar | [20]RSS | [21]Education | [22]About APOD | [23]Discuss | [24]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [25]Robert Nemiroff ([26]MTU) & [27]Jerry Bonnell ([28]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [29]Specific rights apply. [30]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [31]ASD at [32]NASA / [33]GSFC, [34]NASA Science Activation & [35]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2302/NGC_2626_CDK_700_II_20_Jan_2023.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.facebook.com/masterdarksastro/ 5. https://www.hansonastronomy.com/ 6. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=528645579245592&set=a.199974262112727 7. https://noirlab.edu/public/images/iotw2115a/ 8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H_II_region 9. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/gallery/pia13122.html 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_Molecular_Ridge 11. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000PASP..112.1426M/abstract 12. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018A%26A...617A..63P/abstract 13. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008hsf2.book...43P/abstract 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230203.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 18. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 23. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=230204 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230205.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 26. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 27. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 28. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 30. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 31. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 32. https://www.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 34. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 35. http://www.mtu.edu/