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Credit & Copyright: Roberto
Colombari
Explanation:
Unlike most entries
in Charles Messier's famous catalog of deep sky objects,
M24
is not a bright galaxy, star cluster, or nebula.
It's a gap in nearby, obscuring intertellar dust clouds that allows
a view of the distant stars in the Sagittarius spiral arm
of our Milky Way galaxy.
When you gaze at the star cloud
with binoculars or small telescope you are
looking through a window over 300 light-years wide at stars some
10,000 light-years or more from Earth.
Sometimes called the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24's luminous
stars fill the left side of
this gorgeous starscape.
Covering about 4 degrees or the width of 8 full moons in the
constellation Sagittarius,
the telescopic field of view contains many
small, dense clouds of dust
and nebulae toward the center of the Milky Way,
including reddish emission from IC 1284
near the top of the frame.
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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: Sagittarius
Publications with words: Sagittarius
See also: