March 31, 2003

Southern Skies
Credit: Don Pettit, ISS Expedition 6 Science Officer, NASA

Explanation: For a while last month, the International Space Station (ISS) orbited Earth with its optical-quality Destiny Lab window tilted toward the southern sky. ISS Science Officer and astrophotographer Don Pettit couldn't resist taking this picture of the Milky Way near the south celestial pole. In the upper right is the Keyhole Nebula--a distant molecular cloud where young stars are forming. The Keyhole Nebula also harbors the doomed star eta Carina. In the lower left is the Coal Sack Nebula--an inky-black dust cloud 60 light years wide. Stars are probably condensing deep inside the Coal Sack--there's enough dust and gas there to make 40,000 suns--but their light has not yet broken through the cloud's dense exterior. In between the two lies The Southern Cross, also known as The Crux. The Southern Cross is such a famous constellation that it is depicted on the national flags of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Brazil. (Rob Suggs of the Marshall Space Flight Center has prepared a version of this image with more nebulas and star clusters labeled: click here.)