2026-07-07
NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara
Look up and wonder — today's cosmic highlight is NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara:
Why this matters
This scene highlights deep-space objects, the Moon. The same physics that lets us photograph it also lets us predict where objects will be tomorrow — which is exactly what real-time tracking is built on.
See it live on ObjectTracer
This connects to what you can track in real time on our 3D globe — explore Deep Space galaxy map · Moon tracker. Or open the live globe to watch flights, satellites, the ISS and spacecraft move right now.
The science — from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day
Where can you find dragons fighting in the night sky? In the southern constellation of the Altar: Ara. The dragons are, of course, actually made of suggestively shaped gas and dust. The celestial home of the mythological battling beasts is cataloged as NGC 6188 and located about 4,000 light years away near the edge of a large molecular cloud. Massive, young stars of the embedded Ara OB1 association were formed there only a few million years ago, sculpting the dark shapes and powering the nebular glow with stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation. Joining NGC 6188 on this cosmic canvas, visible toward the lower right, is unusual emission nebula NGC 6164, also created by one of the region's massive stars. This impressively wide field picture, captured from Queensland, Australia, spans over 2 degrees (four full Moons).
Image credit: Rod Prazeres · Source: NASA APOD
More from the Space Journal
- Sibling Supernova Remnants2026-07-02
- PK 164 +31.1: The Headphone Nebula2026-05-27
- The Nebulous Realm of WR 1342026-05-22
- The Vela Supernova Remnant2026-06-02
- Interplanetary Earth2026-06-13
- SDO Observes a Coronal Mass Ejection2026-06-24