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Credit & Copyright: John Davis
Explanation:
Bright
star Markab anchors this dusty skyscape.
At the top right corner of the frame, Markab itself marks
a corner of an asterism known as
the Great Square, found
within the boundaries of the constellation Pegasus,
the
flying horse.
The wide and deep telescopic view rides along for some
5 degrees or about 10 times the
angular diameter of the Full Moon,
with blue reflection nebulae
scattered around the scene.
And even though this
line-of-sight
looks away from
the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, it covers a region
known to be filled with nearby molecular clouds.
The associated dust clouds, high latitude
galactic cirrus,
are less than 1,000 light-years distant.
Still apparent, but far beyond the Milky Way,
are background galaxies, like the prominent
edge-on spiral NGC 7497 near picture center.
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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: dust - molecular cloud
Publications with words: dust - molecular cloud
See also: