Astronomy Picture of the Day

Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

Clarification: This brilliant cosmic cloud was etched by stellar winds and radiation from the hot youthful stars of open bunch NGC 3324. With dust clouds in silhouette against its shining atomic gas, the pocket-shaped star-forming locale really traverses around 35 light-years. It lies approximately 7,500 light-years away toward the cloud rich southern constellation Carina. A composite of narrowband picture information, the telescopic view catches the characteristic emission from ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen molecules mapped to red, green, and blue shades in the well known Hubble Palette. For a few, the celestial landscape of splendid edges of outflow circumscribed by cool, darkening dust along the right side make an unmistakable face in profile. The region's popular name is the Gabriela Mistral Nebula for the Nobel Prize winning Chilean writer.