October 29, 2020
The atoms in your body have known many forms: star core, drifting dust, ocean mineral, living cell.
The Ghoul of IC 2118
Birthday · October 29, 2020
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APOD published October 29, 2020. Credit: Casey Good/Steve Timmons. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Inspired by the halloween season, this telescopic portrait captures a cosmic cloud with a scary visage. The interstellar scene lies within the dusty expanse of reflection nebula IC 2118 in the constellation Orion, the Hunter. IC 2118 is about 800 light-years from your neighborhood, close to bright bluish star Rigel at Orion's foot. Often identified as the Witch Head nebula for its appearance in a wider field of view it now rises before the witching hour. With spiky stars for eyes, the ghoulish apparition identified here seems to extend an arm many light-years long toward Orion's hot supergiant star. The source of illumination for IC 2118, Rigel is just beyond this frame at the upper left.
Image credit: Casey Good/Steve Timmons