What causes reflection nebulae?

A reflection nebula is created when light from a star is scattered or reflected off a neighbouring dust cloud. The result is that blue light is scattered more efficiently than longer, red wavelengths giving the characteristic blue colour for these nebulae. The Pleiades is one of the most famous reflection nebulae.

What are nebulae and how are they formed?

The Short Answer: A nebula is a giant cloud of dust and gas in space. Some nebulae (more than one nebula) come from the gas and dust thrown out by the explosion of a dying star, such as a supernova. Other nebulae are regions where new stars are beginning to form.

What causes these nebulae to glow?

Emission Nebula – An emission nebula is a cloud of high temperature gas. Within this type of nebula, a star energizes the atoms in the cloud with ultraviolet radiation. As these atoms fall back to lower energy states, they emit radiation. This causes the nebula to glow.

Where are reflection nebulae found?

A reflection nebula is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that reflects the light from other stars. This happens in the surroundings of stars that are not hot enough to excite the hydrogen atoms of the cloud (as is the case for emission nebula that are emitting light, not just reflecting the light from stars).

What are reflection nebula made of?

A reflection nebula is a cloud of gas and dust which does not create its own light, but instead shines by reflecting the light from nearby stars. The brightest reflection nebulae are places where new stars are being formed. Here the gas and dust is thick and shines by the light of new, bright stars.

What is formed from nebulae 1 point?

Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula. In these regions, the formations of gas, dust, and other materials “clump” together to form denser regions, which attract further matter, and eventually will become dense enough to form stars.

What is reflection nebula blue?

Reflection nebulae are usually blue because the scattering is more efficient for blue light than red (this is the same scattering process that gives us blue skies and red sunsets). Some 500 reflection nebulae are known. A blue reflection nebula can also be seen in the same area of the sky as the Trifid Nebula.

What causes the characteristic blue color of a reflection nebula quizlet?

What causes the blue color associated with reflection nebulae? The reflection nebula is a cloud of dust. When light from a star encounters this cloud, the short wavelength blue light “bounces back” from the cloud towards us, and the longer wavelength red light passes through.

What causes blue color in nebula?

Explanation: Reflection nebulae reflect light from a nearby star. Many small carbon grains in the nebula reflect the light. The blue color typical of reflection nebula is caused by blue light being more efficiently scattered by the carbon dust than red light.

What Colour are reflection nebulae and why?

Reflection nebulae are usually blue because the scattering is more efficient for blue light than red (this is the same scattering process that gives us blue skies and red sunsets).