Astronomy Picture of the Day - NGC 1333: Stellar Nursery in Perseus

NASA ^ | 30 Jan, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Eder

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: NGC 1333 is seen in visible light 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 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 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.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[MtnClimber]

It looks like a Rastafarian blowing out smoke of some type. You can bet he will be hungry soon and do a Door Dash order for a cheeseburger.

[No name given]

Wow.

[blueunicorn6]

It looks like the head of a Roman Soldier riding around in an old Corvette.

Looking for a cheeseburger.

[telescope115]

Very colorful.

[AFB-XYZ]

Bob Marley’s zodiacal constellation.

[minnesota_bound]

Many explosions going on inside.