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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Is this a cosmic monster ready to devour an unsuspecting galaxy? Thankfully, that is not the case. The red “monster” shown in the featured image is Cometary Globule CG 4, 1,300 light-years away in the Constellation Puppis. CG 4 is a molecular cloud, where hydrogen becomes cold enough to form molecules that can be brought together by gravity to create stars. The shape of CG 4 resembles that of a comet, but its head is 1.5 light-year in diameter and its tail is 8 light-years long; for comparison, the distance from the Earth to the sun is only 8 light-minutes. Astronomers believe that the tail of a cometary globule could have been shaped by a nearby supernova explosion or by irradiation from hot, massive stars. Indeed, CG 4 and other nearby globules point away from the Vela Supernova Remnant, at the center of the Gum Nebula. The edge-on spiral galaxy, ESO 257-19, is more than a hundred million light-years beyond CG 4, and is completely safe from the “monster”.

Photo by William Vrbasso

Blast furnace road (at night) Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Thomas Bonometti on Unsplash

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Are lasers from giant telescopes being used to defend the Earth? No. Lasers shot from telescopes are now commonly used to help increase the accuracy of astronomical observations. In some directions, Earth atmosphere-induced fluctuations in starlight can indicate how the air mass over a telescope is changing, but in other directions, no bright star exists. In these directions, astronomers can create an artificial star with a laser. Subsequent observations of the artificial laser guide star can reveal information so detailed about the changing blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere that much of it can be removed by rapidly flexing a telescope's mirror. Such adaptive optics techniques allow high-resolution ground-based observations of real stars, planets, and nebulas. Pictured here, telescopes at Paranal Observatory in Chile study a colorful sky filled with green airglow and the Magellanic Clouds on the left, red airglow on the right, and the majestic central band of our Milky Way Galaxy arching across the center.

Photo by Julien Looten

Forester kangaroo (Macropus giganteus tasmaniensis) juvenile, Upper Esk Valley, Dorset, Tasmania, Australia.

Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Lance Asper on Unsplash

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's going on inside the head of this nebula? Dubbed the Exposed Cranium Nebula for its similarity to the human brain, what created the nebula remains a mystery. One thought is that the Cranium Nebula, also known as PMR 1, is a planetary nebula surrounding a white dwarf star. In this mode, the outer atmosphere was expelled when the original Sun-like star ran out of central nuclear fuel and contracted. A competing thought is that the central star is much more massive, possibly a Wolf-Rayet star, that is ejecting gas and dust via turbulent stellar winds. Adding to the intrigue is the dark vertical central division and the thin outer gaseous shell. The featured image was taken by the Webb Space Telescope in mid- infrared light, while a second image, included as a rollover, is in near-infrared. Future observations may reveal if this brainy system will quietly just fade from view or, many years from now, suddenly erupt in a powerful supernova.

A motorcyclist in motion on the corner of W 42nd St and 6th Ave in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on March 9, 2023. An example of kinetic art created by intentional camera movement, reminiscent of the work of Austrian-American photographer Ernst Haas (1921–1986).

Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

"If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend."

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) An influential North African theologian and philosopher, known for works like Confessions and The City of God. He is the patron and father of the Catholic Augustinian order.