July 6, 2015
On the day you were born, another consciousness opened inside the cosmos and began taking notes.
Colorful Clouds Near Rho Ophiuchi
Birthday · July 6, 2015
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APOD published July 6, 2015. Credit: Markus Noller (Deep-Sky-Images). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so colorful? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces blue reflection nebulae. Gaseous clouds whose atoms are excited by ultraviolet starlight produce reddish emission nebulae. Backlit dust clouds block starlight and so appear dark. Antares, a red supergiant and one of the brighter stars in the night sky, lights up the yellow-red clouds on the lower center of the featured image. Rho Ophiuchi lies at the center of the blue nebula on the left. The distant globular cluster M4 is visible to the upper right of center. These star clouds are even more colorful than humans can see, emitting light across the electromagnetic spectrum. Astrophysicists: Browse 1,000+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
Image credit: Markus Noller (Deep-Sky-Images)