NASA’s WISE mission has produced a stunning image of the area of space surrounding the star Pi Scorpii (or Π Scorpii if you prefer), specifically the reflection nebula DC 129.
DG 129 and Pi Scorpii Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team
The nebula sits in the middle of the constellation Scorpios’ ‘claw’ (the linking of stars into constellations with apparently ‘recognisable’ shapes is something that I fail to grasp).
It is located approximately 500 light years from the Earth and is classed as a reflection nebula as it is reflecting the light of nearby stars rather than producing its own light.
As I’m particularly interested in stellar astrophysics (the study of stars) I find Π Scorpii to be particularly interesting. In this image, Π Scorpii is the star on the right partially obscured by a greenish ‘fog’, but we see as one star is actually three – a ternary system.
The nebula DG 129 was first catalogued by the German astronomers, Johann Dorschner and Josef Gürtler, in 1963.
This image was obtained after spacecraft had depleted most of its coolant and had started to warm up rendering its longest wavelength detector (sensitive to 22 micron infra- red radiation) useless. Due to this failure, this image is composed of data from three filters rather than four. They are 3.4 microns (blue in the image), 4.6 microns (green in the image), and finally 12-micron (shown in red).
You can find more about this image here.
Sigma Orionis 