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Credit & Copyright: Maurice Toet
Explanation:
There is no sea on Earth large enough to contain the Shark nebula.
This predator
apparition poses us no danger, though, as it is composed only of interstellar gas
and
dust.
Dark dust like that
featured here
is somewhat like cigarette smoke and
created
in the cool atmospheres of giant
stars.
After being expelled with gas and
gravitationally recondensing,
massive stars may
carve
intricate structures into their birth cloud using their high energy light and
fast
stellar winds as sculpting tools.
The heat they generate evaporates the murky
molecular cloud as well as causing ambient hydrogen gas
to disperse and glow red.
During disintegration, we humans can enjoy
imagining these
great clouds as
common icons, like we do for
water
clouds
on Earth.
Including smaller
dust nebulae such as Lynds Dark Nebula 1235 and Van den Bergh 149 & 150, the
Shark nebula spans
about 15 light years and lies about 650
light years away toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia
(Cepheus).
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: nebula
Publications with words: nebula
See also: