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Credit & Copyright: Alessandro Falesiedi
Explanation:
This composition in stardust
covers almost 2 degrees
on the sky, close to the border of the zodiacal
constellation
Aries and the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy.
At the lower right of the gorgeous skyscape is a dusty blue
reflection nebula surrounding a bright star
cataloged as
van den Bergh 13 (vdB 13), about 1,000 light-years away.
At that estimated distance, the
cosmic canvas is over 30 light-years across.
Also surrounded by scattered blue starlight, vdB 16 lies
toward the upper left, while
dark dusty nebulae sprawl across the
scene.
Near the edge of a large
molecular
cloud, they can hide the newly
formed stars and young stellar objects
or protostars from prying optical telescopes.
Collapsing due to
self-gravity, the
protostars
form around dense cores embedded in the molecular cloud.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: reflection nebula - dust
Publications with words: reflection nebula - dust
See also:
- APOD: 2024 January 29 Á The Pleiades: Seven Dusty Sisters
- The Light, the Dark, and the Dusty
- APOD: 2023 October 30 Á Reflections of the Ghost Nebula
- The Ghosts of Gamma Cas
- APOD: 2023 September 26 Á IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula
- NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula
- NGC 1333: Stellar Nursery in Perseus