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Astronomy Picture of the Day
Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
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#104440
by
[z]Barbara Harris
@
01.11.2007 00:00
- nach oben -
Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
Explanation:
Halloween's origin
is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC,
Halloween
has been celebrated as a
cross-quarter day
, a day halfway between an
equinox
(equal day / equal night) and a
solstice
(minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere). With our
modern calendar
, however, the real
cross-quarter day
will occur next week. Another cross-quarter day is
Groundhog's Day
.
Halloween's
modern celebration retains
historic roots
in dressing to scare away the spirits of the dead. Perhaps a fitting modern tribute to this ancient holiday is the
above-pictured Ghost Head Nebula
taken with the
Hubble Space Telescope
. Appearing similar to the icon of a
fictional
ghost
, NGC 2080 is actually a
star forming region
in the
Large Magellanic Cloud
, a satellite galaxy of our own
Milky Way Galaxy
. The Ghost Head Nebula spans about 50
light-years
and is shown in representative colors.
Credit & Copyright