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                           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 28   
      
                              The Ghosts of Gamma Cas   
           Image Credit & Copyright: Guillaume Gruntz, Jean-Fran+ºois Bax   
      
      Explanation: Gamma Cassiopeiae shines high in northern autumn evening   
      skies. It's the brightest spiky star in this telescopic field of view   
      toward the constellation Cassiopeia. Gamma Cas shares the   
      ethereal-looking scene with ghostly interstellar clouds of gas and   
      dust, IC 59 (top left) and IC 63. About 600 light-years distant, the   
      clouds aren't actually ghosts. They are slowly disappearing though,   
      eroding under the influence of energetic radiation from hot and   
      luminous gamma Cas. Gamma Cas is physically located only 3 to 4   
      light-years from the nebulae. Slightly closer to gamma Cas, IC 63 is   
      dominated by red H-alpha light emitted as hydrogen atoms ionized by the   
      star's ultraviolet radiation recombine with electrons. Farther from the   
      star, IC 59 shows proportionally less H-alpha emission but more of the   
      characteristic blue tint of dust reflected star light. The cosmic stage   
      spans over 1 degree or 10 light-years at the estimated distance of   
      gamma Cas and friends.   
      
                  Tomorrow's picture: ghosts of the Cepheus Flare   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          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.   
      
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