May 28, 2019
Every birthday is a reminder that you are made of the same material as the stars overhead — carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, all cooked in stellar...
Stars, Dust, and Gas near NGC 3572
Birthday · May 28, 2019
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APOD published May 28, 2019. Credit: Andrew Campbell. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Star formation can be colorful. This chromatic cosmic portrait features glowing gas and dark dust near some recently formed stars of NGC 3572, a little-studied star cluster near the Carina Nebula. Stars from NGC 3572 are visible near the bottom of the image, while the expansive gas cloud above is likely what remains of their formation nebula. The image's striking hues were created by featuring specific colors emitted by hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, and blending them with images recorded through broadband filters in red, green, and blue. This nebula near NGC 3572 spans about 100 light years and lies about 9,000 light years away toward the southern constellation of the Ship's Keel (Carina). Within a few million years the pictured gas will likely disperse, while gravitational encounters will likely disperse the cluster stars over about a billion years. Astrophysicists: Browse 1,900+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
Image credit: Andrew Campbell