APOD: 2021 January 16 - The Mountains of NGC 2174

Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "The Mountains of NGC 2174." The area in this photograph is near the head of the constellation Orion, and can be found with an ordinary set of binoculars. But what we are seeing here is being captured at infrared wavelengths. In other words, our eyes cannot fully see what is happening. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) can though, and does so in a spectacular fashion. This star forming region of gas and dust lies about 6,400 light years away and spans a distance of ~6 light years.