﻿ 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 September 26 [2]A starfield surrounds a large nebula that is mostly brown and blue and has an appearance reminiscent of the head of a horse. This nebula is not the more famous IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Antoine & Dalia Grelin Explanation: Do you see the horse's head? What you are seeing is not the famous [4]Horsehead nebula toward [5]Orion, but rather a fainter nebula that only takes on a [6]familiar form with deeper imaging. The main part of the [7]here-imaged [8]molecular cloud complex is [9]reflection nebula [10]IC 4592. Reflection nebulas are made up of very fine [11]dust that normally appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the [12]visible light of energetic nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star at the [13]eye of the [14]horse. That star is part of [15]Nu Scorpii, one of the brighter star systems toward the constellation of the Scorpion ([16]Scorpius). A second [17]reflection nebula dubbed [18]IC 4601 is visible surrounding [19]two stars above and to the right of the image center. Tomorrow's picture: open space __________________________________________________________________ [20]< | [21]Archive | [22]Submissions | [23]Index | [24]Search | [25]Calendar | [26]RSS | [27]Education | [28]About APOD | [29]Discuss | [30]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [31]Robert Nemiroff ([32]MTU) & [33]Jerry Bonnell ([34]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [35]Specific rights apply. [36]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [37]ASD at [38]NASA / [39]GSFC, [40]NASA Science Activation & [41]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2309/BlueHorse_Grelin_9342.jpg 3. https://www.galactic-hunter.com/about 4. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220921.html 5. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210509.html 6. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210704.html 7. https://www.galactic-hunter.com/post/ic4592 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230129.html 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection_nebula 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_4592 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030706.html 12. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/09_visiblelight 13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0VJ1K93PM 14. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DYPBo1QCnls/UBAUokUjOFI/AAAAAAAAAck/gSVevljIUUc/s640/funnyface.jpg 15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_Scorpii 16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpius 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/reflection_nebulae.html 18. https://www.astrobin.com/iky5d6/B/ 19. https://www.atnf.csiro.au/outreach/education/senior/astrophysics/binary_intro.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230925.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 24. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 29. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=230926 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230927.html 31. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 32. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 33. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 34. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 36. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 37. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 38. https://www.nasa.gov/ 39. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 40. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 41. http://www.mtu.edu/