Astronomy Picture of the Day

Good morning RP. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "The Cave Nebula in Infrared from Spitzer." Launched in August 2003, The Spitzer Space Telescope provides an infrared view of the universe that is hidden from optical telescopes. Mouse over the image (after clicking the page) to see the details discussed below. The Cave Nebula is quite bright in infrared, revealing internal pillars of gas, dust, and a star cluster near the top of the image. The red glow around the Cave's entrance is created by dust heated by bright young stars. To the right is Cepheus B, another star cluster. A separate nebula lies toward the image bottom, and a runaway star pushing a red bow-shock wave is at the image center. This region is about 2,500 light years away near the constellation Cepheus (between the constellations Little Dipper, Casseiopeia, and Draco).