March 18, 2019 - Stellar Nursery Blooms into View

Stellar Nursery Blooms into View  The OmegaCAM camera on the ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope has captured this glittering view of the stellar nursery called Sharpless 29. Many astronomical phenomena can be seen in this widefield image, including cosmic dust and gas clouds that reflect, absorb, and re-emit the light of hot young stars within the nebula. The region of sky pictured is listed in the Sharpless catalogue of H II regions—interstellar clouds of ionized gas, rife with star formation. Also known as Sh 2-29, Sharpless 29 is located about 5,500 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius, next door to the larger Lagoon Nebula. It contains many astronomical wonders, including the highly active star formation site of NGC 6559, the reddish nebula at the center of the image.

Image credit: European Southern Observatory

Weekly Calendar

March 18 - 24, 2019

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

 

Monday 18

1965: Voskhod 2 launched, Alexei Leonov takes world’s first spacewalk
1980: Soviet rocket explosion kills 50 workers at Plesetsk launch pad
2016: Soyuz TMA-20M launched carrying ISS Expedition 47/48 crew

Tuesday 19

Moon at perigee

1970: First powered flight of X-24A lifting body

Wednesday 20

Equinox 5:58 PM ET
Full Moon 9:43 PM ET

Thursday 21

1866: Antonia Maury born
1965: Ranger 9 launched
2018: Soyuz MS-08 launched carrying ISS Expedition 55/56 crew

Friday 22

1982: STS-3 Columbia launched
1996: STS-76 Atlantis launched
1997: Comet Hale-Bopp closest approach to Earth

Saturday 23

1749: Pierre Laplace born
1840: John William Draper takes first photograph of Moon
1912: Wernher von Braun born
1965: Gemini III launched
2001: Mir space station reenters atmosphere

Sunday 24

1893: Walter Baade born
1992: STS-45 Atlantis launched