May 22, 2009
Every year, the Earth returns to the same point in its orbit where it was when you were born.
East of Antares
Birthday · May 22, 2009
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APOD published May 22, 2009. Credit: Yuri Beletsky. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
st of Antares, dark markings sprawl through crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds include B59, B72, B77 and B78, seen in silhouette against the starry background. Here, their combined shape suggests a pipe stem and bowl, and so the dark nebula's popular name is the Pipe Nebula. The deep and expansive view was recorded in very dark Chilean skies. It covers a full 10 by 7 degree field in the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus. The Pipe Nebula is part of the Ophiuchus dark cloud complex located at a distance of about 450 light-years. Dense cores of gas and dust within the Pipe Nebula are collapsing to form stars.
Image credit: Yuri Beletsky