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. 2021 October 1 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. The Central Milky Way from Lagoon to Pipe Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Gabriel Rodrigues Santos Explanation: [5]Dark markings and colorful clouds inhabit this stellar landscape. The deep and expansive view spans more than 30 full moons across crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. [6]Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer [7]E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds seen toward the right [8]include B59, B72, B77 and B78, part of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud complex a mere 450 light-years away. To the eye their combined shape [9]suggests a pipe stem and bowl, and so the dark nebula's popular name is [10]the Pipe Nebula. Three bright nebulae gathered on the left are stellar nurseries some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Sagittarius. In the 18th century astronomer [11]Charles Messier included two of them in his catalog of bright clusters and nebulae; M8, the [12]largest of the triplet, and colorful M20 just above. The third prominent emission region includes NGC 6559 at the far left. Itself divided by obscuring dust lanes, M20 is also known as [13]the Trifid. M8's popular moniker is [14]the Lagoon Nebula. Tomorrow's picture: welcome to spring __________________________________________________________________ [15]< | [16]Archive | [17]Submissions | [18]Index | [19]Search | [20]Calendar | [21]RSS | [22]Education | [23]About APOD | [24]Discuss | [25]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [26]Robert Nemiroff ([27]MTU) & [28]Jerry Bonnell ([29]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [30]Specific rights apply. [31]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [32]ASD at [33]NASA / [34]GSFC & [35]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2110/M8-Pipe_APOD_GabrielSantosSmall.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.astrobin.com/users/grsotnas/ 5. https://www.astrobin.com/bim3bg/C/ 6. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?1919ApJ....49....1B 7. https://www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/meet-the-stargazers/in-history.html 8. https://www.saguaroastro.org/the-best-of-barnards-dark-nebulae/ 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200807.html 11. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/new-hubble-gallery-features-objects-from-popular-not-a-comet-messier-catalog 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210426.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210812.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160909.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210930.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 19. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 24. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=211001 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211002.html 26. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 27. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 28. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 29. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 31. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 32. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/ 34. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 35. http://www.mtu.edu/