April 18, 2009
In the grand ledger of cosmic time, a human life is breathtakingly brief. But brevity is not insignificance.
NGC 1333 Stardust
Birthday · April 18, 2009
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APOD published April 18, 2009. Credit: Stephen Leshin. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud. This striking close-up view spans about 4 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with hints of contrasting emission in red jets and glowing gas from recently formed stars. In fact, NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago.
Image credit: Stephen Leshin