                        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.

                                2025 August 1

                              Small Dark Nebula
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Bresseler

   Explanation: A small, dark, nebula looks isolated near the center of
   this telescopic close-up. The wedge-shaped cosmic cloudlet lies within
   a relatively crowded region of space though. About 7,000 light-years
   distant and filled with glowing gas and an embedded cluster of young
   stars, the region is known as M16 or the Eagle Nebula. Hubble's iconic
   images of the Eagle Nebula include the famous star-forming Pillars of
   Creation, towering structures of interstellar gas and dust 4 to 5
   light-years long. But this small dark nebula, known to some as a Bok
   globule, is a fraction of a light-year across. The Bok globule stands
   out in silhouette against the expansive background of M16's diffuse
   glow. Found scattered within emission nebulae and star clusters, Bok
   globules are small interstellar clouds of cold molecular gas and
   obscuring dust that also form stars within their dense, collapsing
   cores.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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