                        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 October 12

                                  Mu Cephei
                    Image Credit & Copyright: David Cruz

   Explanation: Mu Cephei is a very large star. An M-class supergiant some
   1500 times the size of the Sun, it is one of the largest stars visible
   to the unaided eye, and even one of the largest in the entire Galaxy.
   If it replaced the Sun in our fair Solar System, Mu Cephei would easily
   engulf Mars and Jupiter. Historically known as Herschel's Garnet Star,
   Mu Cephei is extremely red. Approximately 2800 light-years distant, the
   supergiant is seen near the edge of reddish emission nebula IC 1396
   toward the royal northern constellation Cepheus in this telescopic
   view. Much cooler and hence redder than the Sun, this supergiant's
   light is further reddened by absorption and scattering due to
   intervening dust within the Milky Way. A well-studied variable star
   understood to be in a late phase of stellar evolution, Mu Cephei is a
   massive star too, destined to ultimately explode as a core-collapse
   supernova.

   APOD editor to speak: in Houghton, Michigan tonight, Thursday, October
                                 12, at 6 pm
                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
     __________________________________________________________________

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

