Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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.

                              2019 November 17

                    Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud
                    Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, WISE

   Explanation: How do stars form? To help find out, astronomers created
   this tantalizing false-color composition of dust clouds and embedded
   newborn stars in infrared wavelengths with WISE, the Wide-field
   Infrared Survey Explorer. The cosmic canvas features one of the closest
   star forming regions, part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex some 400
   light-years distant near the southern edge of the pronounceable
   constellation Ophiuchus. After forming along a large cloud of cold
   molecular hydrogen gas, young stars heat the surrounding dust to
   produce the infrared glow. Stars in the process of formation, called
   young stellar objects or YSOs, are embedded in the compact pinkish
   nebulae seen here, but are otherwise hidden from the prying eyes of
   optical telescopes. An exploration of the region in penetrating
   infrared light has detected emerging and newly formed stars whose
   average age is estimated to be a mere 300,000 years. That's extremely
   young compared to the Sun's age of 5 billion years. The prominent
   reddish nebula at the lower right surrounding the star Sigma Scorpii is
   a reflection nebula produced by dust scattering starlight. This view
   from WISE, released in 2012, spans almost 2 degrees and covers about 14
   light-years at the estimated distance of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud.

                      Tomorrow's picture: distant flyby
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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