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APOD

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.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Pillars and Jets in the Pelican Nebula

Explanation: What dark structures arise from the Pelican Nebula? Visible as a bird-shaped nebula toward the constellation of a bird ( Cygnus , the Swan), the Pelican Nebula is a place dotted with newly formed stars but fouled with dark dust. These smoke-sized dust grain s formed in the cool atmospheres of young stars and were dispersed by stellar winds and explosions . Impressive Herbig-Haro jets are seen emitted by a star on the right that is helping to destroy the light year -long dust pillar that contains it. The featured image was scientifically-colored to emphasize light emitted by small amounts of ionized nitrogen , oxygen , and sulfur in the nebula made predominantly of hydrogen and helium . The Pelican Nebula (IC 5067 and IC 5070) is about 2,000 light-years away and can be found with a small telescope to the northeast of the bright star Deneb .

Date March 4, 2015
Credit Image Credit & Copyright: Larry Van Vleet ( LVVASTRO )
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.