                        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.

                                2023 June 28

                     Messier 24: Sagittarius Star Cloud
               Image Credit & Copyright: Emmanuel Astronomono

   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 interstellar dust clouds that allows a
   view of the distant stars in the Sagittarius spiral arm of our Milky
   Way galaxy. Direct your gaze through this gap with binoculars or small
   telescope and 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 this
   gorgeous starscape. Covering over 3 degrees or the width of 6 full
   moons in the constellation Sagittarius, the telescopic field of view
   includes dark markings B92 and B93 near center, along with other clouds
   of dust and glowing nebulae toward the center of the Milky Way.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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