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. 2026 January 30 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. NGC 1333: Stellar Nursery in Perseus Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Robert Eder Explanation: NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a [5]reflection nebula, dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation [6]Perseus, it lies at the edge of a large, [7]star-forming molecular cloud. [8]This telescopic close-up spans over two full moons on the sky or just over 15 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 1333. It shows details of the dusty region along with telltale hints of contrasty red emission from [9]Herbig-Haro objects, [10]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 [11]hidden from optical telescopes by the [12]pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Tomorrow's picture: flight day 13 __________________________________________________________________ [13]< | [14]Archive | [15]Submissions | [16]Index | [17]Search | [18]Calendar | [19]RSS | [20]Education | [21]About APOD | [22]Discuss | [23]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell ([27]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [28]Specific rights apply. [29]NASA Web Privacy, [30]Accessibility, [31]Notices; A service of: [32]ASD at [33]NASA / [34]GSFC, [35]NASA Science Activation & [36]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2601/NGC1333_Robert_Eder.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.astrobin.com/users/Robsi/ 5. http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cms/astro/cosmos/R/Reflection+Nebula 6. http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/per/index.html 7. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0602089 8. https://app.astrobin.com/u/Robsi?i=lcq7o0 9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbig-Haro_object#Discovery_and_history_of_observations 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240912.html 11. http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/news/224-ssc2005-24-Beautiful-Chaos-of-Star-Birth 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210318.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260129.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 19. https://apod.com/feed.rss 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 22. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=260130 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260131.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 30. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/ 32. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/ 34. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 35. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 36. http://www.mtu.edu/