January 29, 2018
The stars above are ancient, but your chance to be here is exquisitely temporary.
The Spider and The Fly
Birthday · January 29, 2018
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APOD published January 29, 2018. Credit: Joe Morris. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Will the spider ever catch the fly? Not if both are large emission nebulas toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). The spider-shaped gas cloud on the left is actually an emission nebula labelled IC 417, while the smaller fly-shaped cloud on the right is dubbed NGC 1931 and is both an emission nebula and a reflection nebula. About 10,000 light-years distant, both nebulas harbor young, open star clusters. For scale, the more compact NGC 1931 (Fly) is about 10 light-years across.
Image credit: Joe Morris