Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]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 July 10 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Lynds Dark Nebula 1251 Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Cristiano Gualco Explanation: Stars are forming in Lynds Dark Nebula ([5]LDN) 1251. About 1,000 light-years away and drifting above the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, LDN 1251 is also less appetizingly known as "The Rotten Fish Nebula." The dusty molecular cloud is part of a complex of dark nebulae mapped toward the [6]Cepheus flare region. [7]Across the spectrum, astronomical explorations of the obscuring interstellar clouds reveal energetic shocks and outflows associated with newborn stars, including the telltale reddish glow from scattered [8]Herbig-Haro objects hiding in the image. Distant background galaxies also lurk in the scene, almost buried behind the dusty expanse. This [9]alluring telescopic frame spans almost three full moons on the sky. That [10]corresponds to over 25 light-years at the estimated distance of LDN 1251. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space __________________________________________________________________ [11]< | [12]Archive | [13]Submissions | [14]Index | [15]Search | [16]Calendar | [17]RSS | [18]Education | [19]About APOD | [20]Discuss | [21]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [22]Robert Nemiroff ([23]MTU) & [24]Jerry Bonnell ([25]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [26]Specific rights apply. [27]NASA Web Privacy, [28]Accessibility, [29]Notices; A service of: [30]ASD at [31]NASA / [32]GSFC, [33]NASA Science Activation & [34]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2507/LDN1251gualco2048.JPG 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://app.astrobin.com/u/CristianoGualco#gallery 5. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1962ApJS....7....1L 6. https://arxiv.org/abs/0809.4761 7. https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.02934 8. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/awakening-newborn-stars 9. https://app.astrobin.com/u/CristianoGualco?i=qyrq8r#gallery 10. https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/scale_distance.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250709.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 15. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 17. https://apod.com/feed.rss 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 20. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250710 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250711.html 22. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 24. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 25. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 27. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 28. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 29. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/ 30. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/ 32. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 33. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 34. http://www.mtu.edu/