The dust is so thick in the center of NGC 1333 that you can hardly see the stars forming. Conversely, the very dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] clouds that hide the stars also reflects their optical light [ http://fuse.pha.jhu…], giving NGC 1333 [ http://www.robgendl…]’s predominantly blue glow the general designation of a reflection nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. A highly detailed image of the nebula, shown above [ http://www.noao.edu…], was taken recently by the Mayall 4-meter telescope [ http://www.noao.edu…] on Kitt Peak [ http://www.noao.edu…] in Arizona [ http://en.wikipedia…], USA [ http://en.wikipedia…] and released to honor astronomer Stephen Strom [ http://www.noao.edu…] on his retirement. Visible near the image top are vast blue regions of dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] predominantly reflecting the light from bright massive stars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Visible in the thick central dust are not only newly formed stars but red jets [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and red-glowing gas energized by the light and winds [ http://www-spof.gsf…] from recently formed young stars. The NGC 1333 [ http://adsabs.harvar d.edu/abs/2002ApJ... 580..959N ] nebula contains [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] hundreds of newly formed stars that are less than one million years old. Reflection nebula [ http://en.wikipedia…] NGC 1333 lies about 1,000 light years [ http://starchild.gs…] away toward the constellation of Perseus [ http://chandra.harv…].