The North America Nebula (Gallery Explorer)

Hidden Universe Video • February 10th, 2011 • hiddenuniverse-035

Seen here in visible light, the North America Nebula strangely resembles its namesake continent. Expanding our view to include infrared light, the dark dust lanes and concealed stars glow in red colors while the continental gas clouds shift to an ocean-­‐like blue. Pushing entirely into the infrared spectrum, we see even more detail in the convoluted dust clouds.

Video Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech