APOD: 2021 April 12 - Alnitak and the Flame Nebula

Thank you my friend Maj William W. 'Bill' Price for posting the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for Monday, April 12, 2021 entitled "Alnitak and the Flame Nebula."

Image: Alnitak and the Flame Nebula - Image Credit & Copyright - Team ARO

APOD background
"Explanation: What lights up the Flame Nebula? Fifteen hundred light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark dust lanes, appears, on the left, like a billowing fire. But fire, the rapid acquisition of oxygen, is not what makes this Flame glow. Rather the bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion visible on the far left, shines energetic light into the Flame that knocks electrons away from the great clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there. Much of the glow results when the electrons and ionized hydrogen recombine. The featured picture of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) was taken across three visible color bands with detail added by a long duration exposure taken in light emitted only by hydrogen. The Flame Nebula is part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a star-forming region that includes the famous Horsehead Nebula."

Cheap Trick - The Flame - live Daytona 1988
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag-b7NNzjXk

FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen LTC (Join to see) SCPO Morris Ramsey MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Sgt Albert Castro PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SSG Samuel Kermon SSG Franklin Briant SP5 Geoffrey Vannerson SMSgt David A Asbury A1C Riley SandersSPC Michael Oles SR TSgt David L. Maj Marty Hogan SMSgt Tom Burns Sgt John H.

Wow! Maj William W. 'Bill' Price! That is quite a ball of fire, or so it looks! Amazing what we have found so many light year's away from Planet Earth! Great APOD, Bill!

Does indeed look like a fire. Thank you for posting this pictures each day I enjoy seeing them and their brief bio.