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.

                                2020 March 2
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                      Sharpless-308: The Dolphin Nebula
   Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Chilesope 2, [4]Pleaides Astrophotography
                              Team (Peking U.)

   Explanation: Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic
   bubble is much larger than the dolphin it appears to be. Cataloged as
   [5]Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,200 light-years away toward the
   constellation of the Big Dog ([6]Canis Major) and covers slightly more
   of the sky than a [7]Full Moon. That [8]corresponds to a diameter of 60
   light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star that created
   the bubble, a [9]Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright one near the center of
   the nebula. [10]Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of the
   [11]Sun and are thought to be in a brief, [12]pre-supernova phase of
   massive [13]star evolution. Fast winds from this [14]Wolf-Rayet star
   create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material
   from an earlier phase of evolution. The [15]windblown nebula has an age
   of about [16]70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured in the
   [17]featured expansive image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen
   atoms [18]mapped to a blue hue.

                     Tomorrow's picture: around the moon
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    Authors & editors: [30]Robert Nemiroff ([31]MTU) & [32]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([33]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [34]Specific rights apply.
              [35]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [36]ASD at [37]NASA / [38]GSFC
                           & [39]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2003/Dolphin_Pleiades_3495.jpg
   3. http://www.chilescope.com/about/chilescope/
   4. https://www.astrobin.com/users/PleiadesAstrophotographyTeam/
   5. http://galaxymap.org/cgi-bin/sharpless.py?s=1
   6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canis_Major
   7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160201.html
   8. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/scale_distance.html
   9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf-Rayet_star
  10. http://earthsky.org/space/wolf-rayets-are-the-most-massive-and-brightest-stars-known
  11. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/sun/overview/
  12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030325.html
  13. https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve
  14. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/hubble-view-wolf-rayet-stars-intense-and-short-lived
  15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080522.html
  16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Paleolithic
  17. https://www.astrobin.com/tqo559/
  18. http://bf-astro.com/hubblep.htm
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200301.html
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  23. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  28. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200302
  29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200303.html
  30. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  31. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  32. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  33. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  35. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  36. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  37. https://www.nasa.gov/
  38. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  39. http://www.mtu.edu/