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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.

                                2025 April 24

                          NGC 6164: A Dragon's Egg
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Stern

   Explanation: Beautiful emission nebula NGC 6164 was created by a rare,
   hot, luminous O-type star, some 40 times as massive as the Sun. Seen at
   the center of the cosmic cloud, the star is a mere 3 to 4 million years
   old. In another three to four million years the massive star will end
   its life in a supernova explosion. Spanning around 4 light-years, the
   nebula itself has a bipolar symmetry. That makes it similar in
   appearance to more common and familiar planetary nebulae - the gaseous
   shrouds surrounding dying sun-like stars. Also like many planetary
   nebulae, NGC 6164 has been found to have an extensive, faint halo,
   revealed in this deep image of the region. Expanding into the
   surrounding interstellar medium, the material in the halo is likely
   from an earlier active phase of the O star. This gorgeous telescopic
   view is a composite of extensive narrow-band image data, highlighting
   glowing atomic hydrogen gas in red and oxygen in greenish hues, with
   broad-band data for the surrounding starfield. Also known as the
   Dragon's Egg nebula, NGC 6164 is 4,200 light-years away in the
   right-angled southern constellation of Norma.

                     Tomorrow's picture: Lucy in the sky
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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