Astronomy Picture Of The Day Explore the cosmos Every day, a new image or photograph of the fascinating universe is presented along with a short explanation by an astronomer. 2021 November 11
NGC 1333: Stellar Nursery, Perseus
Image Credit and Copyright: Michael Sherick
Explanation: NGC1333 can be seen in visible light as an interstellar dust reflection nebula. It is dominated by the bluish hues of starlight. It lies just 1,000 light-years away from the Perseus constellation, and is at the edge a large star-forming molecular clouds. This close-up telescopic telescopic stretches over two full moons in the sky, or just under 15 light-years at NGC 1333. The image shows the dusty area, as well as visible hints of red emission from Herbig Haro objects, jets, and shocked glowing gas from newly formed stars. NGC 1333 actually contains hundreds of stars that are less than one million years old. Most of them are still obscured by stardust, which is ubiquitous in the region. This chaotic environment could be similar to the one where our Sun formed more than 4.5 billion years ago.
