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. 2024 July 18 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Messier 24: Sagittarius Star Cloud Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Christopher Freeburn Explanation: [5]Unlike most entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog of deep sky objects, [6]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. [7]Direct your gaze through this gap with binoculars or small telescope and 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 are left of center in [8]this gorgeous starscape. Covering over 6 degrees or the width of 12 full moons in the constellation Sagittarius, the telescopic field of view includes [9]dark markings B92 and B93 [10]near the center of M24, along with other clouds of dust and glowing nebulae toward the center of the Milky Way. Tomorrow's picture: festival of planets __________________________________________________________________ [11]< | [12]Archive | [13]Submissions | [14]Index | [15]Search | [16]Calendar | [17]RSS | [18]Education | [19]About APOD | [20]Discuss | [21]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [22]Robert Nemiroff ([23]MTU) & [24]Jerry Bonnell ([25]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [26]Specific rights apply. [27]NASA Web Privacy, [28]Accessibility Notices A service of: [29]ASD at [30]NASA / [31]GSFC, [32]NASA Science Activation & [33]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2407/M24-HaLRGB-RC51_2048.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.astrobin.com/users/CrestwoodSky/ 5. https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-messier-catalog 6. http://www.messier.seds.org/m/m024.html 7. https://oneminuteastronomer.com/4460/small-sagittarius-star-cloud/ 8. https://www.astrobin.com/0lzu44/ 9. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1919ApJ....49....1B/abstract 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100708.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240717.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 15. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 20. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=240718 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240719.html 22. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 24. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 25. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 27. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 28. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 29. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 30. https://www.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 32. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 33. http://www.mtu.edu/