MSGID: 1:153/757.0 c010fb56
TZUTC: -0800
CHRS: LATIN-1 2
                        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 December 25

                     Unicorn, Fox Fur and Christmas Tree
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Kalika

   Explanation: A star forming region cataloged as NGC 2264, this
   beautiful but complex arrangement of interstellar gas and dust is about
   2,700 light-years distant in the faint but fanciful constellation
   Monoceros, the Unicorn. Seen toward the celestial equator and near the
   plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the seasonal skyscape mixes reddish
   emission nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars with
   dark interstellar dust clouds. Where the otherwise obscuring dust
   clouds lie close to the hot, young stars, they also reflect starlight,
   forming blue reflection nebulae. In fact, bright variable star S
   Monocerotis is immersed in a blue-tinted haze near center. Arrayed with
   a simple triangular outline above S Monocerotis, the stars of NGC 2264
   are popularly known as the Christmas Tree star cluster. Carved by
   energetic starlight, the Cone Nebula sits upside down at the apex of
   this cosmic Christmas tree while the dusty, convoluted pelt of glowing
   gas and dust under the tree is called the Fox Fur Nebula. This rich
   telescopic frame spans about 1.5 degrees or 3 full moons on the sky top
   to bottom, covering nearly 80 light-years at the distance of NGC 2264.

                    Tomorrow's picture: extrasolar flyby
     __________________________________________________________________

       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.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
 * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)
SEEN-BY: 19/10 105/81 106/201 128/187 129/14 305 134/100 153/135 143
SEEN-BY: 153/148 151 757 6809 7083 7715 154/110 218/700 840 220/70
SEEN-BY: 221/1 6 360 226/17 30 227/114 229/110 112 134 206 307 317
SEEN-BY: 229/400 426 428 470 664 700 705 266/512 267/800 291/111 301/1
SEEN-BY: 320/219 322/757 335/364 341/66 342/200 396/45 460/58 633/267
SEEN-BY: 633/280 414 418 420 422 2744 712/848 770/1 100 340 350 772/210
SEEN-BY: 772/220 230 902/26 5020/400 5075/35
PATH: 153/757 221/6 218/840 770/1 633/280 229/426