                        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.

                                2026 April 28
     A star field with a few red wisps surrounds a nebula that has many
   several dark components each of which has a dark head closer to the top
    of the image. A red glow is brightest near the top of each component.
          Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

                          CG 30: Cometary Globules
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Marcelo Salemme

   Explanation: They're like mountain peaks, but they are forming stars.
   Bright-rimmed, flowing shapes gather near the center of this rich
   starfield toward the borders of the nautical southern constellations
   Puppis and Vela. Composed of interstellar gas and dust, the grouping of
   light-year sized cometary globules is about 1300 light-years distant.
   Energetic ultraviolet light from nearby hot stars has molded the
   globules and ionized their bright rims. The globules also stream away
   from the Vela supernova remnant which may have influenced their
   swept-back shapes. Within them, cores of cold gas and dust are likely
   collapsing to form low mass stars whose formation will ultimately cause
   the globules to disperse. In fact, cometary globule CG 30 (upper right
   in the group) sports a small reddish glow inside its head, a telltale
   sign of energetic jets from a star in the early stages of formation.

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