February 21, 2024
The light from the farthest visible stars set out on its journey long before your first birthday.
Seagull Nebula over Pinnacles' Peak
Birthday · February 21, 2024
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APOD published February 21, 2024. Credit: Dheera Venkatraman. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
The bird is bigger than the peak. Nicknamed for its avian shape, the Seagull Nebula is an emission nebula on the night sky that is vast, spanning an angle over five times the diameter of the full moon and over 200 light years. The head of the nebula is catalogued as IC 2177, and the star cluster under its right wing is catalogued as NGC 2343. Consisting of mostly red-glowing hydrogen gas, the Seagull Nebula incorporates some dust lanes and is forming stars. The peak over which this Seagull seems to soar occurs at Pinnacles National Park in California, USA. The featured image is a composite of long exposure images of the background sky and short exposure images of the foreground, all taken consecutively with the same camera and from the same location. Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Image credit: Dheera Venkatraman