In today's image, we see an example of an emission nebula around a hot massive star. The ultraviolet light from the star excites the gases around it and causes them to glow. Patterns in the gas can be caused by motions of the star itself which has a stellar companion as well as effects from he magnetic field of the star itself.

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This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

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