Reflection nebula
In astronomy, reflection nebulae are clouds of interstellar dust which reflect the light of a nearby star or stars. The energy from the nearby stars is insufficient to ionize the gas of the nebula to create an emission nebula, but is enough to give sufficient scattering to make the dust visible. Thus, the frequency spectrum shown by reflection nebulae is similar to that of the illuminating stars. Among the microscopic particles responsible for the scattering are carbon compounds (e. g. diamond dust) and compounds of other elements such as iron and nickel. The latter two are often aligned with the galactic magnetic field and cause the scattered light to be slightly polarized.
Uses material from the Wikipedia article "Reflection nebula", which is released under the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0.Astronomical object | Distance | Wiki | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
72 Tauri | Reflection nebula | B | 378 | |
Alniyat | Reflection nebula | O | 474 | [x] |
Antares | Reflection nebula | M | 553 | [x] |
Cave Nebula | Reflection nebula | 2395 | [x] | |
HIP 17890 | Reflection nebula | A | 392 | |
IC 1287 | Reflection nebula | 996 | ||
IC 348 | Reflection nebula | 1263 | [x] | |
IC 4604 | Reflection nebula | 587 | ||
Messier 78 | Reflection nebula | 1582 | [x] | |
NGC 1333 | Reflection nebula | 1061 | [x] | |
NGC 1999 | Reflection nebula | 1144 | [x] | |
NGC 5367 | Reflection nebula | 2091 | ||
R Monocerotis | Reflection nebula | B | 3000 | [x] |
Rigel | Reflection nebula | B | 863 | [x] |
Witch Head Nebula | Reflection nebula | 888 | [x] |