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| My image of the Triffid Nebula in the constellation Sagittarius taken with the Bradford Robotic Telescope |
The Triffid Nebula is approximately 5200 light years distant and is located in the Scutum spiral arm of our galaxy 'The Milky Way'. It is a stellar nursery and a rare combination of an open star cluster, an emission nebula (red coloured clouds) and a reflection nebula (blue coloured clouds).
A nebula is a region of interstellar gas and dust. Emission nebulae are clouds of ionized gas that emit photons at a range of frequencies. They are ionised by the radiation from nearby stars. Generally, these nebulae appear reddish.
Reflection nebulae are clouds of dust that simply reflect the light from nearby stars. The dust particles of reflection nebulae usually only scatter blue light, so appear blue.
Other types of nebulae don't reflect light. Dark nebulae such as the 'lanes' you can see in the above image are so dense that they block light from other sources, such as background emission nebulae, reflection nebulae, or other stars.
Credits: Wikipedia and the Bradford Robotic Telescope
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