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                        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.

                              2024 November 18
      A blue glowing gas background shows numerous bright stars in the
     foreground. A dark red dust nebula is also visible toward the image
    center. Around the edges, dark dust clouds are also visible, sometime
   colored tan and other times dark brown. Please see the explanation for
                         more detailed information.

                     Stars and Dust in the Pacman Nebula
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Malcolm Loro

   Explanation: Stars can create huge and intricate dust sculptures from
   the dense and dark molecular clouds from which they are born. The tools
   the stars use to carve their detailed works are high energy light and
   fast stellar winds. The heat they generate evaporates the dark
   molecular dust as well as causing ambient hydrogen gas to disperse and
   glow. Pictured here, a new open cluster of stars designated IC 1590 is
   nearing completion around the intricate interstellar dust structures in
   the emission nebula NGC 281, dubbed the Pac-man Nebula because of its
   overall shape. The dust cloud just above center is classified as a Bok
   Globule as it may gravitationally collapse and form a star -- or stars.
   The Pacman Nebula lies about 10,000 light years away toward the
   constellation of Cassiopeia.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pointing clouds
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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