NGC 1977: Blue Reflection Nebula in Orion
Credit:
Anglo-Australian Telescope
photograph by David Malin
The
Orion Nebula
is visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy patch near the famous
belt of three stars in the
constellation
Orion. The
above picture captures a part of the
Orion Nebula that primarily reflects light from bright Orion stars. This
reflection nebula appears blue
because the blue light from the neighboring stars scatters more
efficiently from nebula gas than does red light.
The dark lanes are composed of mostly
interstellar dust - fine needle-shaped
carbon grains.