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The Colorful Clouds of Rho O
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| Title |
The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi |
| Explanation |
The many spectacular colors of the Rho Ophiuchi [ http://www.seds.org/billa/twn/antx.html ] (oh'-fee-yu-kee) clouds highlight the many processes that occur there. The blue regions shine primarily by reflected light. Blue light from the star Rho Ophiuchi [ http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/legacy/iras_rhooph_gc/captio n.html ] and nearby stars reflects [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/reflection_nebulae.html ] more efficiently off this portion of the nebula than red light. The Earth's daytime sky appears blue [ http://www.why-is-the-sky-blue.org/why-is-the-sky-blue.html ] for the same reason. The red and yellow regions shine primarily because of emission [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/emission_nebulae.html ] from the nebula's atomic and molecular gas. Light from nearby blue stars - more energetic than the bright star Antares [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/antares.html ] - knocks electrons [ http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/welect.html ] away from the gas, which then shines when the electrons recombine with the gas. The dark regions [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030202.html ] are caused by dust grains [ http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Mathis/Mathis1.html ] - born in young stellar atmospheres - which effectively block light emitted behind them. The Rho Ophiuchi star clouds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000521.html ], well in front of the globular cluster [ http://www.seds.org/messier/glob.html ] M4 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000523.html ] visible above [ http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/antares.html ] on far lower left, are even more colorful than humans can see [ http://www.colormatters.com/optics.html ] - the clouds emits light in every wavelength band [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html ] from the radio [ http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/radio.html ] to the gamma-ray [ http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/gamma.html ]. |
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The Colorful Clouds of Rho O
…
| Title |
The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi |
| Explanation |
The many spectacular colors of the Rho Ophiuchi [ http://www.seds.org/billa/twn/antx.html ] (oh'-fee-yu-kee) clouds highlight the many processes that occur there. The blue regions shine primarily by reflected light. Blue light from the star Rho Ophiuchi [ http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/legacy/iras_rhooph_gc/caption.html ] and nearby stars reflects [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/reflection_nebulae.html ] more efficiently off this portion of the nebula than red light. The Earth's daytime sky appears blue [ http://www.why-is-the-sky-blue.org/why-is-the-sky-blue.html ] for the same reason. The red and yellow regions shine primarily because of emission [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/emission_nebulae.html ] from the nebula's atomic and molecular gas. Light from nearby blue stars - more energetic than the bright star Antares [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/antares.html ] - knocks electrons [ http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/welect.html ] away from the gas, which then shines when the electrons recombine with the gas. The dark regions [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030202.html ] are caused by dust grains [ http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Mathis/Mathis1.html ] - born in young stellar atmospheres - which effectively block light emitted behind them. The Rho Ophiuchi star clouds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000521.html ], well in front of the globular cluster [ http://www.seds.org/messier/glob.html ] M4 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000523.html ] visible above [ http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/antares.html ] on far lower left, are even more colorful than humans can see [ http://www.colormatters.com/optics.html ] - the clouds emits light in every wavelength band [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html ] from the radio [ http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/radio.html ] to the gamma-ray [ http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/gamma.html ]. |
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