                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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.

                               2022 October 24

                       Clouds Around Galaxy Andromeda
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Andrew Fryhover

   Explanation: What are those red clouds surrounding the Andromeda
   galaxy? This galaxy, M31, is often imaged by planet Earth-based
   astronomers. As the nearest large spiral galaxy, it is a familiar sight
   with dark dust lanes, bright yellowish core, and spiral arms traced by
   clouds of bright blue stars. A mosaic of well-exposed broad and
   narrow-band image data, this deep portrait of our neighboring island
   universe offers strikingly unfamiliar features though, faint reddish
   clouds of glowing ionized hydrogen gas in the same wide field of view.
   Most of the ionized hydrogen clouds surely lie in the foreground of the
   scene, well within our Milky Way Galaxy. They are likely associated
   with the pervasive, dusty interstellar cirrus clouds scattered hundreds
   of light-years above our own galactic plane. Some of the clouds,
   however, occur right in the Andromeda galaxy itself, and some in M110,
   the small galaxy just below.

                      Tomorrow's picture: jupiter moves
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

