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IC 4592
IC 4592
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello
IC 4592 (called the Blue Horsehead Nebula) is a reflection nebula in the Scorpius constellation.
Reflection nebulas are actually made up of very fine dust that normally appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the light of energetic nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star at the eye of the horse.
That star is part of Nu Scorpii, one of the brighter star systems toward the Scorpius. A second reflection nebula dubbed IC 4601 is visible surrounding two stars at the image center.
Its distance is about 400 light-years.
The blue area at the bottom is part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.
IC 4592
IC 4592
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello
IC 4592 (called the Blue Horsehead Nebula) is a reflection nebula in the Scorpius constellation.
Reflection nebulas are actually made up of very fine dust that normally appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the light of energetic nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star at the eye of the horse.
That star is part of Nu Scorpii, one of the brighter star systems toward the Scorpius. A second reflection nebula dubbed IC 4601 is visible surrounding two stars at the image center.
Its distance is about 400 light-years.
The blue area at the bottom is part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.