Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2023 April 22 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. NGC 1333: Stellar Nursery in Perseus Image Credit: Science - [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]STScI, Processing - Varun Bajaj (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Jennifer Mack (STScI) Explanation: In visible light NGC 1333 is seen as a [6]reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation [7]Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud. [8]This Hubble Space Telescope close-up frames a region just over 1 light-year wide at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with telltale hints of contrasty red emission from [9]Herbig-Haro objects, [10]jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars. In fact, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still [11]hidden from optical telescopes by the [12]pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago. [13]Hubble's stunning image of the stellar nursery was released to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the space telescope's launch. Watch: Planet Earth's annual [14]Lyrid Meteor Shower Tomorrow's picture: cloudy day __________________________________________________________________ [15]< | [16]Archive | [17]Submissions | [18]Index | [19]Search | [20]Calendar | [21]RSS | [22]Education | [23]About APOD | [24]Discuss | [25]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [26]Robert Nemiroff ([27]MTU) & [28]Jerry Bonnell ([29]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [30]Specific rights apply. [31]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [32]ASD at [33]NASA / [34]GSFC, [35]NASA Science Activation & [36]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2304/NGC1333HST33rd.png 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://www.stsci.edu/ 6. http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cms/astro/cosmos/R/Reflection+Nebula 7. http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/per/index.html 8. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-celebrates-33rd-anniversary-with-a-peek-into-nearby-star-forming-region 9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbig-Haro_object#Discovery_and_history_of_observations 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140204.html 11. http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/news/224-ssc2005-24-Beautiful-Chaos-of-Star-Birth 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210318.html 13. https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-012 14. https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-lyrid-meteor-shower/ 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230421.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 19. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 24. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=230422 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230423.html 26. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 27. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 28. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 29. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 31. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 32. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/ 34. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 35. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 36. http://www.mtu.edu/