                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

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                                2023 April 22

                    NGC 1333: Stellar Nursery in Perseus
     Image Credit: Science - NASA, ESA, STScI, Processing - Varun Bajaj
                                  (STScI),
              Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Jennifer Mack (STScI)

   Explanation: In visible light NGC 1333 is seen as a reflection nebula,
   dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by
   interstellar 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 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 Herbig-Haro objects, 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
   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. 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 Lyrid Meteor Shower
                       Tomorrow's picture: cloudy day
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