January 30, 2025
On your birthday, the Earth completed another orbit — 584 million miles traveled since your last celebration.
Hydrogen Clouds of M33
Birthday · January 30, 2025
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APOD published January 30, 2025. Credit: Pea Mauro. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Gorgeous spiral galaxy Messier 33 seems to have more than its fair share of glowing hydrogen gas. A prominent member of the Local Group of galaxies, M33 is also known as the Triangulum Galaxy and lies a mere 3 million light-years away. The galaxy's central 60,000 light-years or so are shown in this sharp galaxy portrait. The portrait features M33's reddish ionized hydrogen clouds or HII regions. Sprawling along loose spiral arms that wind toward the core, M33's giant HII regions are some of the largest known stellar nurseries, sites of the formation of short-lived but very massive stars. Intense ultraviolet radiation from the luminous, massive stars ionizes the surrounding hydrogen gas and ultimately produces the characteristic red glow. In this image, broadband data were combined with narrowband data recorded through a filter that transmits the light of the strongest visible hydrogen and oxygen emission lines.
Image credit: Pea Mauro