﻿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2024 January 15 [2]A cluster of stars is shown along with surrounding nebular gas a and dust. Shown in infrared light in pink, the dust winds around the nebula center and itself appears composed of many finer filaments. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. Star Cluster IC 348 from Webb Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]CSA, [6]STScI, and [7]K. Luhman ([8]Penn State U.) and [9]C. Alves de Oliveira ([10]ESA) Explanation: Sometimes, it's the stars that are the hardest to see that are the most interesting. [11]IC 348 is a young star cluster that illuminates surrounding filamentary dust. The stringy and winding dust appears pink in [12]this recently released infrared image from the [13]Webb Space Telescope. In [14]visible light, this dust reflects mostly blue light, giving [15]the surrounding material the familiar blue hue of a reflection nebula. Besides bright stars, several cool objects have been located in IC 348, visible because they glow brighter in [16]infrared light. These objects are hypothesized to be low mass [17]brown dwarfs. [18]Evidence for this includes the detection of an [19]unidentified atmospheric chemical, likely a hydrocarbon, seen previously in the [20]atmosphere of [21]Saturn. These objects appear to have masses slightly greater than known planets, only a few times greater than [22]Jupiter. Together, these indicate that this young [23]star cluster contains something noteworthy -- young planet-mass [24]brown dwarfs that float free, not orbiting any other star. Tomorrow's picture: almost orion __________________________________________________________________ [25]< | [26]Archive | [27]Submissions | [28]Index | [29]Search | [30]Calendar | [31]RSS | [32]Education | [33]About APOD | [34]Discuss | [35]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [36]Robert Nemiroff ([37]MTU) & [38]Jerry Bonnell ([39]UMCP) NASA Official: Ryan Smallcomb [40]Specific rights apply. [41]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [42]ASD at [43]NASA / [44]GSFC, [45]NASA Science Activation & [46]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2401/IC348_webb_3788.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/ 6. https://www.stsci.edu/ 7. https://science.psu.edu/astro/people/kll207 8. https://science.psu.edu/astro 9. https://c-alvesdeoliveira.com/ 10. https://www.esa.int/ 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_348 12. https://esawebb.org/images/weic2331a/ 13. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/ 14. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/09_visiblelight/ 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230112.html 16. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/07_infraredwaves/ 17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf 18. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024AJ....167...19L/abstract 19. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/banner-three-pets-atttentive-thinking-600nw-2136132101.jpg 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110119.html 21. https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/ 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220828.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230707.html 24. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/articles/what-makes-brown-dwarfs-unique 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240114.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 29. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 31. https://apod.com/feed.rss 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 34. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=240115 35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240116.html 36. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 37. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 38. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 39. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 40. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 41. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 42. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 43. https://www.nasa.gov/ 44. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 45. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 46. http://www.mtu.edu/