Thursday, April 21, 2011

APOD 4.3

This picture taken by the Wide-Field Survey Explorer provides a look inside of the Rho Ophiuchi  cloud complex, where hot and bright young stars are easily visible and create stunning colorful effects against the cloud's dust when seen through infrared imaging.  The cloud complex borders the two constellations Ophiuchus (the serpent handler) and Scorpius (Scorpion) and it is unique because it is one of the closest star forming regions to Earth and therefore provides valuable insight into the lives of young stars which is harder to receive from farther regions, such as the Orion nebula.  The white and blue tinted regions of this image indicate the presence of an emission nebula and the pink objects are young stars in the process of formation. The bright red dot in the picture is actually another galaxy called PGC 090239.  Overall it is fascinating to see how many objects and processes we can identify from these cloud complexes in space, despite the fact that they are mere points of light when viewed from a far distance in the sky.     

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