Pan-STARRS and
Nebulae
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
A single image from the
world's most powerful survey instrument captured this spectacular skyview.
Looking toward Sagittarius, the scene spans nearly 3 degrees or six times the
width of the Full Moon.
At bottom, upper right,
and lower left it covers the Lagoon Nebula (M8), the
Trifid Nebula (M20), and NGC 6559, in the crowded, dusty starfields of the central Milky Way.
The adopted color scheme
shows dust reddened starlight in red hues and normally red emission from
hydrogen atoms in green.
Built and operated by
the Pan-STARRS project, the instrument features a 1.4 gigapixel (billion
pixel) digital camera and telescope.
Pan-STARRS, the
Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System, is intended to scan the
skies for potentially dangerous near-earth asteroids and
comets, exploring the Universe
with a unique high resolution, wide field
view.
