Daily Telescope: Traveling into the heart of the Heart Nebula

Enlarge / The heart of the Heart Nebula.

Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We’ll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we’re going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

Good morning. It’s November 17, and today’s photo takes us into the Cassiopeia constellation, where we find the Heart Nebula 7,500 light-years away.

This is a fairly bright nebula, discovered nearly 240 years ago by astronomer William Herschel. Because of its brilliant colors, the Heart Nebula is an attractive target for amateur astronomers.