The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi
Image Credit: Rafael Defavari
The many spectacular colors of theRho Ophiuchi (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 and nearby stars reflectsmore efficiently off this portion of the nebula than red light. The Earth’s daytime sky appears blue for the same reason. The red and yellow regions shine primarily because of emission from the nebula’s atomic and molecular gas. Light from nearby blue stars – more energetic than the bright star Antares – knocks electrons away from the gas, which then shines when the electrons recombine with the gas. The dark brown regionsare caused by dust grains – born in young stellar atmospheres – which effectively block light emitted behind them. The Rho Ophiuchi star clouds, well in front of the globular cluster M4 visibleabove on lower left, are even more colorful thanhumans can see – the clouds emits light in everywavelength band from the radio to the gamma-ray.
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