The Spider and the Fly

The Spider and the Fly

Image Credit & Copyright:
Dave Boddington

Explanation:
Will the spider ever catch the fly?

Not if both are large emission nebulas toward the constellation of
the Charioteer
(Auriga).

The spider-shaped
gas cloud in the image center is actually an emission nebula labelled
IC 417,
while the smaller fly-shaped cloud on the left is dubbed
NGC 1931 and
is both an emission nebula and a reflection nebula.

About 10,000
light-years distant, both nebulas harbor young star clusters.

For scale, the more compact
NGC 1931 (Fly) is about 10 light-years across.

The featured deep
image,
captured over 20 hours during late January in
Berkshire
UK, also shows more diffuse and red-glowing interstellar gas and dust.