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Credit & Copyright: Mario Cogo
(Galax Lux)
Explanation:
The colorful clouds surrounding the star system Rho Ophiuchi
compose one of the closest star forming regions.
Rho Ophiuchi itself is a
binary star system visible in the
blue reflection nebula just to the left of the image center.
The star system, located only 400
light years away, is distinguished by its
multi-colored surroundings,
which include a red
emission nebula and numerous
light and dark brown dust lanes.
Near the lower left of the Rho Ophiuchi
molecular cloud system is the yellow star
Antares, while a distant but coincidently-superposed
globular cluster of stars,
M4, is visible just to the right
of Antares.
Near the image top lies IC 4592, the
Blue Horsehead nebula.
The blue glow that surrounds the Blue Horsehead's eye -- and other stars around the
image -- is a reflection nebula composed of fine dust.
On the
featured image right is a geometrically angled reflection nebula
cataloged as
Sharpless
1.
Here, the bright star near the dust vortex creates the light of surrounding
reflection nebula.
Although most of
these features
are visible through a small telescope pointed toward the constellations of
Ophiuchus,
Scorpius, and
Sagittarius, the only way to see the intricate details of the dust swirls, as
featured above, is to use a
long exposure camera.
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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: star formation
Publications with words: star formation
See also: