IC 4592：蓝马头反射星云

2023年9月26日

IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Antoine & Dalia Grelin

Explanation: Do you see the horse’s head? What you are seeing is not the famous Horsehead nebula toward Orion, but rather a fainter nebula that only takes on a familiar form with deeper imaging. The main part of the here-imaged molecular cloud complex is reflection nebula IC 4592. Reflection nebulas are made up of very fine dust that normally appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the visible light of energetic nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star at the eye of the horse. That star is part of Nu Scorpii, one of the brighter star systems toward the constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). A second reflection nebula dubbed IC 4601 is visible surrounding two stars above and to the right of the image center.

Tomorrow’s picture: steve X

IC 4592：蓝马头反射星云
影像提供与版权: Antoine & Dalia Grelin

说明: 你看到马头了吗？你见到的不是猎户座著名的马头星云，而是另一个只有在较深空影像里，形似马头的外观才会显现的昏暗星云。这张影像所呈现的分子云复合体的主体，是编录号为IC 4592的反射星云。反射星云是由微小的尘埃所组成，正常情况下看起来很黝黑，不过如果它反射附近炽热恒星的可见光，色泽却可能变得很蓝。在上面这个案例里，大部分受到反射的星光，是源自位于马眼的恒星。这颗恒星是尾宿九（Nu Scorpii）的成员星之一，而尾宿九则是天蝎座数个明亮多合星系统之一。在影像的中右方，可以看见环拱着2颗恒星、名为IC 4601的第二个反射星云。

明日的图片: steve X