NGC 1333 is a reflection nebula lying 967 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. It is on the western end of the Perseus molecular cloud and is a very active region of star formation. Many different stages of star formation are visible in this image. Above center, a pair of V-shaped bipolar outflows can be seen being emitted at right angles to the accretion disk of a proto-star within the dark nebula. Numerous bright red Herbig-Haro objects scattered around the image indicate where ionized bipolar outflows emitted by other proto-stars are colliding with surrounding gas and dust, causing them to glow. As newborn blue supergiant stars emerge from the dark nebulae, the shorter wavelenghts of their intense light output is scattered by surrounding dust, but the longer blue wavelength are able to be transmitted through, generating a blue reflection nebula. This is the analogous to the air molecules in our atmosphere scattering white sunlight, making the sky appear blue.
Image Data:
Telescope/Mount: Celestron Compustar C14 with Starizona LF reducer/corrector (f/7.5).
Camera: SBIG STL 11000M with Baader Planetarium LRGB filters.
Adaptive Optics: SBIG AO-L at 8 Hz.
Location: Pommier Observatory, Portland, OR, USA
Dates: 2018-12-03 through 2019-11-29
Exposures: L:R:G:B = 330:85:85:75 minutes = 9 hours, 35 minutes total exposure at f/7.5.
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