                        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 July 11

                     Messier 24: Sagittarius Star Cloud
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Chuck Ayoub

   Explanation: Unlike most entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog of
   deep sky objects, M24 is not a bright galaxy, star cluster, or nebula.
   It's a gap in nearby, obscuring interstellar dust clouds that allows a
   view of the distant stars in the Sagittarius spiral arm of our Milky
   Way galaxy. Direct your gaze through this gap with binoculars or a
   small telescope and you are looking through a window over 300
   light-years wide at stars some 10,000 light-years or more from Earth.
   Sometimes called the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24's luminous stars
   stretch across this gorgeous interstellar scene. Spanning over four
   full moons on the sky toward the constellation Sagittarius, the
   telescopic field of view includes dark markings B92 and B93 near the
   center of M24, along with other clouds of dust and glowing nebulae
   toward the center of the Milky Way.

                   Tomorrow's picture: shells and streams
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

