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Credit & Copyright: Nico Carver
Explanation:
This telescopic close-up
shows off the central regions of
otherwise faint emission nebula IC 410,
captured under backyard skies.
Presented
in a Hubble color palette,
the image combines visible broadband and narrowband data
with data from the near-infrared.
Below and right of center
are two remarkable inhabitants of the interstellar pond of gas and dust.
the Tadpoles of IC 410.
Partly obscured by foreground dust, the nebula itself surrounds
NGC 1893, a young
galactic cluster of stars.
Formed in the interstellar cloud a mere 4 million years ago, the
intensely hot, bright
cluster stars energize the glowing gas.
But the cosmic tadpoles themselves are
composed of denser cooler gas and dust.
Around 10 light-years long they are likely sites of ongoing
star formation.
Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation their heads are outlined by
bright ridges of ionized gas
while their tails trail away from the cluster's central young stars.
IC 410 lies some 10,000 light-years away,
toward the nebula-rich constellation Auriga.
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Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day