Oct 28, 2024
The Cosmic Bat Nebula ©
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The Cosmic Bat Nebula ©
The Cosmic Bat Nebula, LDN 43 // Sascha Ebeler
© Francis Bozon-Gangloff
The Bat Nebula !
Courtesy: Andrew Barton
The Cosmic Bat, LDN 43 l NASA APOD
LDN 43: The Cosmic Bat Nebula
"Located about 1400 light year away in the constellation Ophiucus, this molecular cloud is dense enough to block light not only from background stars, but from wisps of gas lit up by the nearby reflection nebula LBN 7. Far from being a harbinger of death, this 12-light year-long filament of gas and dust is actually a stellar nursery. Glowing with eerie light, the bat is lit up from inside by dense gaseous knots that have just formed young stars."
A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 October 28
NGC 6995: The Bat Nebula
The featured image shows a starfield with a multi- colored nebula in the center. The nebula is quite filamentary but appears to some like a bat.
Image Credit & Copyright: Francis Bozon-Gangloff
Explanation: Can you see the bat? It haunts this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. While the Veil is roughly circular in shape and covers nearly 3 degrees on the sky toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus), NGC 6995, known informally as the Bat Nebula, spans only 1/2 degree, about the apparent size of the Moon. That translates to 12 light-years at the Veil's estimated distance, a reassuring 1,400 light-years from planet Earth. In the composite of image data recorded through several narrow band filters, emission from hydrogen atoms is shown in red and strong emission from oxygen atoms is shown in hues of blue. Of course, in the western part of the Veil lies another seasonal apparition: the Witch's Broom Nebula.
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.
NGC 6995: The Bat Nebula