Starship Asterisk*

The Spider and The Fly

Explanation: Will the spider ever catch the fly? Not if both are large emission nebulas toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). The spider-shaped gas cloud on the left is actually an emission nebula labelled IC 417, while the smaller fly-shaped cloud on the right is dubbed NGC 1931 and is both an emission nebula and a reflection nebula. About 10,000 light-years distant, both nebulas harbor young, open star clusters. For scale, the more compact NGC 1931 (Fly) is about 10 light-years across.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[/b]

Nice shot revealing some interesting features: the "smoke trail" extending out from the right side of the spider, the two bright yellow-orange stars in the spider's upper left, and what has the appearance of a shock wave moving into the Fly Nebula. Regrettably I couldn't get the enlargement to be any larger than the original photo. Tracking through the links I could find no further details.

NCTom wrote:... Tracking through the links I could find no further details.

Click on the photographer's name under the title and it takes you to his site, and then ultimately to today's APOD, with photo details...

http://www.astrophotographybyjoemorris. ... Nebula.htm

Click the image there for a higher-resolution version.

Very nice image... "Come into my parlor...."

Probably better than my "Squiggly Line Nebula"....

:---[===] *

Thanks, J.S. I hadn't realized that was available through the photographer's name.