This is a public domain photo from the GRIN Great Images In NASA Collection within the NASA image archive.

This misty public domain photo from the Hubble Space Telescope captures a refection nebula in the Orion Constellation. This type of nebula is not self-illuminating. The light we see permeating the mist of gases is only reflected light from a nearby star. This is a very fine image that will work well in background collages or in stand-alone applications.

This image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope – NASA. NASA is an Agency of the United States Government, therefore this image is in the public domain.

1.15 megabyte JPG. Hosted by nasa.gov.

1. Christina Turnbull
   03.21.10

   The subject of the image in “Reflection Nebula” is a star nebula as it shines through an opening of clouds in the night sky. The colors in the picture include a dark blue that starts in the center of the cloud opening, and shades all the way up to bright white in the nebula that is peeking through. There are some purple tints in both the clouds and the rays coming off the nebula. The clouds have a gauzy, light texture to them, and start as a light mist at the edges of the canvass, bit get wispy and curled along the inner edge of the central opening in the clouds. The overall tone is darkness, with brilliant light emanating from the distant nebula. The hues are shadowed and generally tinted with darkness. The combination of colors and effects creates a study in the contrasts between the deepest darkness of space, the blinding whiteness of light, and the impact both have on the clouds through which they are viewed. It is a deeply quiet image in terms of its nighttime setting, and yet very kinetic in its depiction of the swirled opening in the clouds. The nebula pierces through an intersection of the clouds and the central, clear opening, with rays scattering outward in an “X” formation. This is reminiscent of a Christian symbol, a cross, and lends a religious feel to the image. It almost looks like the clouds are trying to play with, or obscure, the nebula.

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2. Mazi Bentley
   03.22.10

   There is a heart-shaped whole in the sky. The clouds surrounding the whole are more darker as they are more further away from the whole, and somewhere near the heart, behind the clouds, is a sun – small and weak with shine. It seems like everything is being watched through dark glass and like the sun is just about to shine through the heart. The sky showing through the heart is dark blue, like a night sky, and the weak sun makes the only contrast. But, it seems it’s a winter’s day and it won’t make much difference…except adding the beauty spark to the whole in the sky…

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