Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 November 5
                                      [2]
                IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Mario Cogo [3]

Explanation: Do you see the horse's head? What you are seeing is not the
famous Horsehead nebula [4]  toward Orion [5]  but rather a fainter nebula
that only takes on a familiar form with deeper imaging. The main part of the
here imaged [6] molecular cloud [7]  complex is a reflection nebula [8]
cataloged as IC 4592 [9] . Reflection nebulas are actually made up of very
fine dust [10]  that normally appears dark but can look quite blue when
reflecting the light [11] of energetic nearby stars. In this case, the source
of much of the reflected light is a star at the eye [12]  of the horse [13] .
That star is part of Nu Scorpii [14] , one of the brighter star systems toward
the constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius [15] ). A second reflection nebula
[16]  dubbed IC 4601 [17]  is visible surrounding two stars to the right of
the image center.

                    Tomorrow's picture: california dreaming

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [29] (MTU [30] ) & Jerry Bonnell [31]
                                  (UMCP [32] )
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1811/BlueHorseshead_Cogo_2560.jpg
  [3] http://www.galaxlux.com/Author.htm
  [4] ap121021.html
  [5] ap120909.html
  [6] http://www.galaxlux.com/IC%204592%20The%20Blu...
  [7] ap120129.html
  [8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection_nebul...
  [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_4592
  [10] ap030706.html
  [11] https://science.nasa.gov/ems/09_visiblelight
  [12] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0VJ1K93PM
  [13]
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DYPBo1QCnls/UBAUokU...
funnyface.jpg
  [14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_Scorpii
  [15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpius
  [16] reflection_nebulae.html
  [17] http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/gallery_ic4601.h...
  [18] ap181104.html
  [19] archivepix.html
  [20] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [21] lib/aptree.html
  [22] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apo...
  [23] calendar/allyears.html
  [24] /apod.rss
  [25] lib/edlinks.html
  [26] lib/about_apod.html
  [27] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
  [28] ap181106.html
  [29] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [30] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [31] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnel...
  [32] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [33] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [34] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priv...
  [35] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [36] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [37] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [38] http://www.mtu.edu/

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