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Picture of the Day

Large glowing clouds fill the frame. One deep red cloud at upper left is split by angular rays of blue light. A deeper blue cloud lies at lower right; a red arc runs up from it to the upper right corner of the frame. Together, these features appear to make up a lion’s head, body, and tail, respectively. The frame is threaded by dark, winding lanes of dust. A dense scattering of small white stars covers the whole scene.

The lion roars

Massimo Di Fusco from Ferrara, Italy

The Lion Nebula (Sh2-132) is a vast emission nebula about 10,400 light-years away in Cepheus, near the border with Lacerta. Hot, massive stars — including two Wolf-Rayet stars — ionize its hydrogen and sculpt the clouds with their fierce winds and radiation. The imager gathered 32½ hours of exposure through light pollution and dual-band Hα/OIII filters with an 8-inch f/4.8 reflector.

In the Sky

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Observing

The Sky Today on Wednesday, July 15: The Summer Triangle overhead

What’s Launching This Week

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What’s Launching This Week

Starship flies again as Skyroot chases India’s first private orbital launch

Today in the History of Astronomy

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A large spacecraft covered in crumpled gold foil occupies most of the frame against a solid black background. A large, prominent white dish antenna with gold supports is angled upward on the top of the vehicle, while a dark, cylindrical instrument structure extends outward from its upper right side. The scene is brightly lit from the upper left, creating a strong contrast between the gleaming gold surfaces, the bright white dish, and the dark void.

Robotic Spaceflight, Today in the History of Astronomy

July 14, 2015: New Horizon arrives at Pluto

More News

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Robotic Spaceflight, Science

The first commercial space telescope delivers

Sky This Week, The Sky This Week

The Sky This Week from July 10 to 17: The Moon and Venus share Leo

$A James Webb Space Telescope deep field image showing hundreds of distant galaxies scattered across a black background in a range of shapes — spirals, ellipticals, and elongated streaks — in colors from white and blue to orange and red. A large, detailed barred spiral galaxy with a bright white core and faint blue spiral arms dominates the center-left of the frame. Several foreground stars display the distinctive six-pointed diffraction spikes characteristic of JWST imagery.$

Cosmology, Stars