NASA Highlight: The Devil’s Tower Nebula is the astronomical photo of the day

NASA Highlight: The Devil’s Tower Nebula is the astronomical photo of the day


Today’s NASA highlight features the nebula known as Devil’s Tower. This large cloud of gas and dust shines thanks to the ionized hydrogen present in its structure

The photo highlighted by NASA this Friday (14) brings the RCW 85 emission region This cosmic cloud shines in the sky of the Southern Hemisphere, and can be observed between Alpha stars and Beta Centauri.

Found about 5,000 light-years away, this cloud of luminous hydrogen gas has a very faint glow.

It is called Devil’s Tower, a nickname that refers to the formation of the same name located in Wyoming, in the United States.

Due to the low light, it took astrophotographer Martin Pugh nearly 30 hours of exposure to capture the nebula’s details.




It was worth it. The final image shows several structures in the cosmic cloud, even more evident at its edges.

Emission nebulae

There are different types of bright clouds in space. Among these are emission nebulae, which are clouds of ionized gas capable of emitting light at wavelengths of visible light.

Planetary nebulae are also emission nebulae. Despite their name, they are objects formed by clouds of gas released as stars advanced towards Earth. final phase of your cycles.

The ionization of helium requires much more energy than that of hydrogen. Therefore the bluest areas of planetary nebulae are the hottest, and indicate where there is greatest excitement in the atoms.

Source: APOD

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