Astronomy Picture of the Day |
APOD: 2024 April 19 - The Great Carina Nebula
Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky,
the Great
Carina Nebula is more modestly known as NGC 3372.
One of our
Galaxy's
largest star forming regions, it spans over 300 light-years.
Like the smaller, more northerly
Great Orion Nebula, the
Carina Nebula is easily visible to the
unaided eye.
But at a distance of 7,500 light-years
it lies some 5 times farther away.
This stunning telescopic view reveals
remarkable details of the region's glowing filaments of
interstellar gas
and
obscuring cosmic dust clouds.
The
Carina Nebula
is home to young, extremely massive stars, including
the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a
star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun.
Eta Carinae
is the bright star above the central dark notch in
this field and left of the
dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324).
APOD: 2024 January 16 – The Orion You Can Almost See
Explanation:
Do you recognize this constellation?
Although it is one of the
most recognizable star groupings on the sky,
this is a
more full Orion than you can see --
an Orion only revealed with long exposure digital
camera imaging and
post-
processing.
Here the cool
red giant
Betelgeuse
takes on a strong orange tint as the brightest star on the upper left.
Orion's hot blue stars are numerous, with
supergiant
Rigel balancing Betelgeuse on the lower right, and
Bellatrix at the upper right.
Lined up in
Orion's belt are three stars
all about 1,500
light-years away,
born from the constellation's well-studied
interstellar clouds.
Just below Orion's belt is a bright but fuzzy patch that might also
look familiar -- the stellar nursery known as
Orion's Nebula.
Finally, just barely visible to the
unaided eye but quite striking here is
Barnard's Loop -- a huge gaseous emission nebula surrounding Orion's Belt and Nebula discovered over 100 years ago by the pioneering Orion photographer
E. E. Barnard.
APOD: 2024 January 5 - Trapezium: At the Heart of Orion
Explanation:
Near the center of
this sharp cosmic portrait, at
the heart of the Orion Nebula,
are four hot, massive stars
known as
the Trapezium.
Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius,
they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster.
Ultraviolet
ionizing radiation from the
Trapezium stars,
mostly from the brightest star
Theta-1 Orionis C
powers the complex star forming region's entire visible glow.
About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster was
even more compact in its younger years and a
dynamical study
indicates that
runaway stellar collisions
at an earlier age may have formed a
black hole
with more than 100 times the mass of the Sun.
The presence of a
black hole within the cluster
could explain the observed high velocities of the
Trapezium stars.
The Orion Nebula's distance of some 1,500 light-years would make it one
of the
closest known black holes
to planet Earth.
APOD: 2023 October 31 – Halloween and the Wizard Nebula
Explanation:
Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical.
Since the fifth century BC,
Halloween
has been celebrated as a
cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an
equinox (equal day / equal night) and a
solstice
(minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere).
With a
modern calendar however, even though Halloween occurs today,
the real
cross-quarter day will occur
next week.
Another cross-quarter day is
Groundhog Day.
Halloween's modern celebration retains
historic roots
in
dressing to scare away the spirits of the dead.
Perhaps a fitting tribute to this ancient holiday is
this closeup view of the
Wizard Nebula (NGC 7380).
Visually, the interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a
fictional ancient sorcerer.
Although the nebula may last only a few million years, some of the
stars being conjured from the gas by the
great gravitational powers may
outlive our Sun.
APOD: 2023 October 10 – Hidden Orion from Webb
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion has hidden stars.
To the unaided eye in visible light, it appears as a small
fuzzy patch in the
constellation of Orion.
But this image was taken by the
Webb Space Telescope
in a representative-color composite of red and very near
infrared light.
It confirms with impressive detail that the
Orion Nebula is a busy neighborhood of
young stars, hot gas, and dark dust.
The rollover image
shows the same image in representative colors further into the
near infrared.
The power behind much of the
Orion Nebula (M42) is the
Trapezium -
a cluster of bright stars near the nebula's center.
The diffuse and
filamentary glow
surrounding the bright stars is mostly heated interstellar
dust.
Detailed inspection of these images shows an
unexpectedly large number of Jupiter-Mass Binary Objects
(JuMBOs), pairs of Jupiter-mass
objects which might give a clue to how stars are forming.
The whole
Orion Nebula cloud complex, which
includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next few million years.
APOD: 2023 June 14 – The Shark Nebula
Explanation:
There is no sea on Earth large enough to contain the Shark nebula.
This predator
apparition poses us no danger as it is composed only of interstellar gas and
dust.
Dark dust like that
featured here
is somewhat like cigarette smoke and
created
in the cool atmospheres of giant
stars.
After being expelled with gas and
gravitationally recondensing, massive stars may
carve intricate structures
into their birth cloud using their high energy light and fast
stellar winds as sculpting tools.
The heat they generate evaporates the murky
molecular cloud as well as
causing ambient hydrogen gas to disperse and glow red.
During disintegration, we humans can enjoy
imagining these
great clouds as
common icons, like we do for
water clouds
on Earth.
Including smaller dust nebulae such as Lynds Dark Nebula 1235 and Van den Bergh 149 & 150, the
Shark nebula spans about 15 light years and lies about 650
light years
away toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia
(Cepheus).
APOD: 2023 May 1 – Carina Nebula North
Explanation:
The Great Carina Nebula
is home to strange stars and iconic nebulas.
Named for its
home constellation, the huge star-forming region is larger and brighter than the
Great Orion Nebula
but less well known because it is so far south -- and because so
much of humanity lives so far north.
The featured image
shows in great detail the northernmost part of the
Carina Nebula.
On the bottom left is the
Gabriela Mistral
Nebula consisting of an
emission nebula
of glowing gas (IC 2599) surrounding the small open cluster of stars
(NGC 3324).
Above the image center is the larger star cluster
NGC 3293,
while to its right is the emission nebula Loden 153.
The most famous occupant of the
Carina Nebula,
however, is not shown.
Off the image to the lower right is the bright, erratic, and doomed star known as
Eta Carinae --
a star once
one of the brightest stars in the sky and now predicted to explode in a
supernova sometime in the next few million years.
APOD: 2023 March 10 - Orion and the Running Man
Explanation:
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like
The Great Nebula in Orion.
Visible as a faint celestial smudge
to the naked-eye,
the nearest large star-forming region sprawls across
this sharp telescopic image,
recorded on a cold January night in dark skies
from West Virginia, planet Earth.
Also known as
M42,
the Orion Nebula's glowing gas surrounds
hot, young stars.
About 40 light-years across, it lies at the edge of an immense interstellar
molecular cloud
only 1,500 light-years away
within the same spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy as the Sun.
Along with dusty bluish reflection nebula
NGC 1977 and friends
near the top of the frame,
the eye-catching nebulae represent only a
small fraction of our
galactic neighborhood's
wealth of star-forming material.
Within the well-studied stellar nursery,
astronomers have also identified
what appear to be numerous
infant solar systems.
APOD: 2022 September 25 - The Fairy of Eagle Nebula
Explanation:
The dust sculptures of the Eagle Nebula are evaporating.
As powerful starlight whittles away these
cool cosmic mountains, the
statuesque pillars that remain
might be imagined as mythical beasts.
Featured here is one of several striking
dust pillars of the
Eagle Nebula
that might be described as a gigantic alien
fairy.
This fairy, however, is ten
light years tall and spews radiation much hotter than
common fire.
The greater Eagle Nebula, M16,
is actually a giant evaporating shell of gas and
dust inside of which is a growing
cavity filled with a spectacular stellar nursery currently forming an
open cluster of stars.
This great pillar, which is about 7,000 light years away, will
likely evaporate away in about 100,000 years.
The featured image is in scientifically
re-assigned colors and
was taken by the Earth-orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope.
APOD: 2022 September 14 - Waves of the Great Lacerta Nebula
Explanation:
It is one of the largest nebulas on the sky -- why isn't it better known?
Roughly the same angular size as the
Andromeda Galaxy, the Great Lacerta Nebula can be found toward the
constellation of the Lizard (Lacerta).
The emission nebula is difficult to see with wide-field binoculars because
it is so faint, but also usually
difficult to see with a
large telescope because it is so great in angle -- spanning about three
degrees.
The depth, breadth, waves, and beauty of the nebula -- cataloged as
Sharpless 126 (Sh2-126) --
can best be seen and appreciated with a
long duration camera exposure.
The featured image is one such combined exposure -- in this case
10 hours over five different colors and over six nights during
this past June and July at the
IC Astronomy Observatory in
Spain.
The hydrogen gas in the Great Lacerta Nebula
glows red because it is excited by light from the bright star
10 Lacertae, one of the bright blue stars just above the red-glowing nebula's center.
The stars and nebula are about 1,200
light years distant.
APOD: 2022 April 25 - The Great Nebula in Carina
Explanation:
In one of the brightest parts of
Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the
oddest things occur.
NGC 3372, known as the
Great Nebula in Carina,
is home to massive stars and changing nebulas.
The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324),
the bright structure just below
the image
center, houses several of these massive stars.
The entire Carina Nebula, captured here, spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the
constellation of Carina.
Eta Carinae, the
most energetic star
in the nebula,
was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but
then faded dramatically.
While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion,
X-ray
images indicate that much of the
Great Nebula in Carina has been a veritable
supernova
factory.
APOD: 2022 April 16 - Orion Pines
Explanation:
Taken with a camera fixed to a tripod, many short exposures
were aligned with the stars to unveil this beautiful, dark night sky.
Captured near
the rural village of Albany`a
at the northeastern corner of Spain, the three
stars of Orion's belt stretch across top center in the starry frame.
Alnitak, the easternmost (left) of the
belt stars is seen next to the more diffuse glow of the
Flame Nebula
and the dark notch of the famous Horsehead.
Easily visible to the naked-eye
The Great Nebula of Orion
is below the belt stars.
A mere 1,500 light-years distant, it is the closest large
stellar nursery to our fair planet.
Best seen in photographs, the broad and faint arc of
Barnard's Loop seems to
embrace Orion's brighter
stars and nebulae though.
In the northern spring the familiar
northern winter constellation
is setting.
Near the western horizon toward lower right Orion's
apparently bright
blue supergiant Rigel just touches the branches of a pine tree.
APOD: 2022 March 7 - A Lion in Orion
Explanation:
Yes, but can you see the lion?
A deep exposure shows the famous
dark indentation that looks like a
horse's head, visible just left and below center, and
known unsurprisingly as the Horsehead Nebula.
The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) is part of a
vast complex of dark absorbing
dust and bright
glowing gas.
To bring out details of the
Horsehead's pasture,
an astrophotographer artistically combined light
accumulated for over 20 hours in
hydrogen (orange),
oxygen (blue), and
sulfur (green).
The resulting spectacular picture
captured from Raachine,
Lebanon,
details an intricate
tapestry of gaseous wisps
and dust-laden
filaments that were created and
sculpted over eons by
stellar winds and
ancient supernovas.
The featured composition brings up another
pareidolic
animal icon -- that of a lion's head --
in the expansive orange colored gas above the horse's head.
The Flame Nebula
is visible just to the left of the Horsehead.
The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500
light years distant towards the constellation of
Orion.
APOD: 2022 January 31 - Carina Nebula North
Explanation:
The Great Carina Nebula
is home to strange stars and iconic nebulas.
Named for its
home constellation, the huge star-forming region is larger and brighter than the
Great Orion Nebula
but less well known because it is so far south -- and because so
much of humanity lives so far north.
The featured image
shows in great detail the northern-most part of the
Carina Nebula.
Visible nebulas include the semi-circular filaments surrounding the active
star Wolf-Rayet 23 (WR23) on the far left.
Just left of center is the
Gabriela Mistral
Nebula consisting of an
emission nebula
of glowing gas (IC 2599) surrounding the small open cluster of stars
(NGC 3324).
Above the image center is the larger star cluster
NGC 3293,
while to its right is the relatively faint emission nebula designated Loden 153.
The most famous occupant of the
Carina Nebula,
however, is not shown.
Off the image to the lower right is the bright, erratic, and doomed star star known as
Eta Carinae --
a star once
one of the brightest stars in the sky and now predicted to explode in a
supernova sometime in the next few million years.
APOD: 2022 January 27 - South of Orion
Explanation:
South of the large star-forming region known as the
Orion Nebula, lies bright blue reflection nebula
NGC 1999.
At the edge of the
Orion molecular
cloud complex some 1,500 light-years distant, NGC 1999's
illumination is provided by the embedded variable star V380 Orionis.
The nebula is marked with a dark sideways T-shape at center right in
this telescopic vista
that spans about two full moons on the sky.
Its dark shape was once assumed to
be an obscuring dust cloud seen in silhouette.
But infrared data
suggest the shape is likely a hole blown through the nebula
itself by energetic young stars.
In fact,
this region abounds
with energetic young stars
producing jets and outflows with luminous shock waves.
Cataloged as Herbig-Haro (HH) objects, named for astronomers
George Herbig and Guillermo Haro,
the shocks have intense reddish hues.
HH1 and HH2 are just below and right of NGC 1999.
HH222, also known as the
Waterfall nebula,
looks like a red gash near top right in the frame.
To create the shocks stellar jets push through
the surrounding material at speeds of
hundreds of kilometers per second.
APOD: 2021 July 7 - Flight Through the Orion Nebula in Infrared Light
Explanation:
What would it look like to fly into the Orion Nebula?
The exciting dynamic visualization
of the Orion Nebula is based on real
astronomical data
and adept movie rendering techniques.
Up close and personal with a famous stellar nursery
normally seen
from 1,500 light-years away, the digitally modeled
representation based is based on
infrared data from the
Spitzer Space Telescope.
The perspective moves along a valley over a
light-year wide, in the wall of the region's giant
molecular cloud.
Orion's valley ends in a cavity carved by the energetic
winds and
radiation of the massive central stars of the
Trapezium star cluster.
The entire Orion Nebula spans about 40
light years
and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as
the Sun.
APOD: 2021 June 29 - Orion Nebula: The Hubble View
Explanation:
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like
the Orion Nebula.
Also known as
M42,
the nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away.
The Orion Nebula offers one of the best opportunities to study how
stars are born partly because it is the nearest large
star-forming region,
but also because the nebula's
energetic stars have blown away
obscuring gas and dust clouds that would otherwise block our view -
providing an intimate look at a range of ongoing stages
of starbirth and evolution.
The featured image of the
Orion Nebula is among the sharpest ever, constructed using data from the
Hubble Space Telescope.
The entire Orion Nebula spans about 40
light years
and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as
the Sun.
APOD: 2021 May 9 - Horsehead and Orion Nebulas
Explanation:
The dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing
Orion Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas.
Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of
the night sky's
most recognizable
constellations,
they appear in opposite corners of the above
stunning mosaic.
The familiar Horsehead
nebula appears as a dark cloud, a
small silhouette
notched against the long red glow at the lower left.
Alnitak is the easternmost star in
Orion's belt and is seen as the brightest
star to the left of the
Horsehead.
Below Alnitak is the
Flame Nebula, with clouds of
bright emission and
dramatic dark dust lanes.
The magnificent emission region, the
Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right.
Immediately to its left is a prominent
reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man.
Pervasive tendrils
of glowing hydrogen gas are easily
traced
throughout the region.
APOD: 2021 April 12 - Alnitak and the Flame Nebula
Explanation:
What lights up the Flame Nebula?
Fifteen hundred
light years away towards the
constellation of
Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark
dust lanes,
appears, on the left, like a billowing fire.
But fire,
the rapid acquisition of
oxygen,
is not what makes this
Flame glow.
Rather the bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in the
Belt of Orion
visible on the far left, shines energetic light into the
Flame that knocks electrons away from the great clouds of
hydrogen
gas that reside there.
Much of the glow results when the electrons and
ionized hydrogen recombine.
The featured picture of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) was taken across three
visible color
bands
with detail added by a
long duration exposure taken in
light emitted only by hydrogen.
The Flame Nebula is part of the
Orion Molecular Cloud Complex,
a star-forming region that includes the famous
Horsehead Nebula.
APOD: 2020 November 26 - The Great Turkey Nebula
Explanation:
Surprisingly reminiscent of The Great Nebula in Orion,
The Great Turkey Nebula spans this creative field of view.
Of course
if it were the Orion Nebula it would be our closest
large stellar nursery, found at the edge of a large molecular cloud
a mere 1,500 light-years away.
Also known as M42,
the Orion Nebula is visible to the eye as the middle
"star" in the sword of Orion the Hunter, a constellation
now rising in planet Earth's
evening skies.
Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout
the Orion Nebula sculpt its ridges and cavities seen in
familiar in telescopic images.
Much larger than any bird you might be cooking,
this Great Turkey Nebula was imagined to be
similar in size to the Orion Nebula,
about 13 light-years across.
Stay safe and well.
APOD: 2020 October 4 - Orion Nebula in Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Sulfur
Explanation:
Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the
nearby stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula.
The Nebula's glowing gas
surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar
molecular cloud.
Many of the filamentary structures visible in the featured image are actually
shock waves -
fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas.
The Orion Nebula spans about 40
light years
and is located about 1500 light years away in the
same spiral arm
of our Galaxy as the
Sun.
The Great Nebula in
Orion can be found with the
unaided eye just below and to the left of the easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion.
The image shows the nebula in
three colors
specifically emitted by
hydrogen,
oxygen, and
sulfur gas.
The whole Orion Nebula cloud complex,
which includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
APOD: 2020 August 28 - The Valley of Orion
Explanation:
This exciting and unfamiliar view
of the Orion Nebula is a visualization based on
astronomical data
and movie rendering techniques.
Up close and personal with a famous stellar nursery
normally seen
from 1,500 light-years away, the digitally modeled
frame transitions from a visible light representation based on
Hubble data on the left to infrared data from the
Spitzer Space Telescope on the right.
The perspective at the center looks along a valley over a
light-year wide, in the wall of the region's giant molecular cloud.
Orion's valley ends in a cavity carved by the energetic winds
and radiation of the massive central stars of the
Trapezium star cluster.
The single frame is part of a multiwavelength, three-dimensional video
that lets the viewer experience an immersive,
three
minute flight through the Great Nebula of Orion.
APOD: 2020 August 14 - NGC 5189: An Unusually Complex Planetary Nebula
Explanation:
Why is this nebula so complex?
When a star like our Sun is dying, it will cast off its outer layers, usually into a simple overall shape.
Sometimes this shape is a
sphere, sometimes a
double lobe, and sometimes a
ring or a
helix.
In the case of planetary nebula
NGC 5189,
however, besides an overall "Z" shape
(the featured image is flipped horizontally and so appears as an "S"),
no such simple structure has emerged.
To help find out why, the Earth-orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope
has observed NGC 5189 in great detail.
Previous findings
indicated the existence of multiple epochs of material outflow,
including a recent one that created a bright but distorted
torus
running horizontally
across image center.
Hubble results appear consistent with a hypothesis that the
dying star
is part of a binary star system with a
precessing symmetry axis.
NGC 5189 spans about three light years and lies about 3,000 light years
away toward the southern constellation of the Fly
(Musca).
APOD: 2020 July 21 - Iron in the Butterfly Nebula
Explanation:
Can stars, like caterpillars, transform themselves into butterflies?
No, but in the case of the
Butterfly
Nebula -- it sure looks like it.
Though its wingspan covers over 3
light-years
and its estimated surface temperature exceeds 200,000 degrees,
C,
the dying central star of NGC 6302, the featured
planetary nebula,
has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in
visible and
ultraviolet
light but hidden from
direct view by a dense torus of dust.
This sharp close-up was recorded by the
Hubble
Space Telescope and is reprocessed here to show off the remarkable
details of the complex
planetary nebula, highlighting
in particular light emitted by
iron, shown in red.
NGC 6302
lies about 4,000 light-years away in the
arachnologically
correct constellation of the Scorpion
(Scorpius).
Planetary nebulas
evolve from outer atmospheres of
stars like our
Sun,
but usually fade in about 20,000 years.
APOD: 2020 July 6 - M43: Dust, Gas, and Stars in the Orion Nebula
Explanation:
Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found together in the Orion Nebula
Arguably the most famous of all astronomy nebulas, the
Great Nebula in Orion is an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1500
light-years away.
In the featured deep image shown in assigned colors, the
part of the nebula's center known as M43 is shown as taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope.
The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the
unaided eye near the
easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation
Orion.
The entire Orion Nebula, including both
M42 and
M43 spans about 40
light years and is located in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
APOD: 2020 March 29 - A 212 Hour Exposure of Orion
Explanation:
The constellation of Orion is much more than three stars in a row.
It is a direction in space that is
rich with impressive nebulas.
To better appreciate this well-known swath of sky, an
extremely long exposure was taken over many clear nights in 2013 and 2014.
After 212 hours of camera time and an
additional year of processing, the featured 1400-exposure collage spanning over 40 times the
angular diameter of
the Moon emerged.
Of the many interesting details that have become visible, one that particularly draws the eye is
Barnard's Loop, the bright red circular filament arcing down from the middle.
The Rosette Nebula is not the giant red nebula near the top of the image -- that is a larger but lesser known nebula known as Lambda Orionis.
The Rosette Nebula is visible, though: it is the red and white nebula on the upper left.
The bright orange star just above the frame center is
Betelgeuse, while the bright blue star on the lower right is
Rigel.
Other famous nebulas visible include
the Witch Head Nebula,
the Flame Nebula,
the Fox Fur Nebula, and, if you know just where to look,
the comparatively small Horsehead Nebula.
About those
famous three stars that cross the belt of
Orion the Hunter --
in this busy frame they can be hard to locate, but a
discerning eye will find them just below and to the right of the image center.
APOD: 2020 February 21 - LDN 1622: Dark Nebula in Orion
Explanation:
The silhouette of an intriguing
dark nebula
inhabits this cosmic scene.
Lynds' Dark Nebula
(LDN) 1622 appears against a faint
background of glowing hydrogen gas only visible in long telescopic
exposures of the region.
In contrast, the brighter reflection nebula
vdB 62 is more easily
seen, just above and right of center.
LDN 1622 lies near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy,
close on the sky to
Barnard's
Loop,
a large cloud surrounding the rich
complex of emission nebulae found
in the Belt and Sword
of Orion.
With swept-back outlines, the obscuring dust of LDN 1622 is thought
to lie at a similar distance, perhaps 1,500 light-years away.
At that distance, this 1 degree wide field of view
would span about 30 light-years.
Young
stars do lie hidden within the dark expanse and have been
revealed in Spitzer Space telescope
infrared images.
Still, the foreboding visual appearance of LDN 1622
inspires its popular name,
the Boogeyman Nebula.
APOD: 2020 February 15 - Carina Nebula Close Up
Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky, the
Great
Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years,
one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions.
Like the smaller, more northerly
Great Orion Nebula, the
Carina Nebula is easily visible to the
unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500
light-years it is some 5 times farther away.
This
gorgeous telescopic close-up
reveals remarkable details of the region's central glowing filaments of
interstellar gas
and obscuring cosmic dust clouds in
a field of view nearly 20 light-years across.
The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including
the still enigmatic and violently variable
Eta Carinae, a
star system with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun.
In the processed composite of space and ground-based image data
a dusty, two-lobed Homunculus Nebula
appears to surround Eta Carinae itself just
below and left of center.
While Eta Carinae is likely on the verge of a supernova explosion,
X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula
has been a veritable
supernova
factory.
APOD: 2019 October 30 - M42: Inside the Orion Nebula
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion,
an immense, nearby
starbirth region,
is probably the most famous of all
astronomical nebulas.
Here, glowing gas
surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1500
light-years away.
In the featured deep image in
assigned colors highlighted by
emission in
oxygen and
hydrogen,
wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident.
The Great Nebula in Orion
can be found with the unaided eye near the
easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation
Orion.
In addition to housing a bright
open cluster of stars known as the
Trapezium, the
Orion Nebula contains many stellar nurseries.
These nurseries contain much
hydrogen gas,
hot young stars,
proplyds, and
stellar jets
spewing material at high speeds.
Also known as
M42, the
Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
APOD: 2019 October 2 - Molecular Clouds in the Carina Nebula
Explanation:
They are not alive -- but they are dying.
The unusual forms found in the
Carina nebula, a few of which are featured here,
might best be described as
evaporating.
Energetic light and winds from nearby stars are breaking apart the dark
dust grains that make the
iconic forms opaque.
Ironically the figures, otherwise known as dark
molecular clouds or bright rimmed
globules,
frequently create in their midst the very stars that later
destroy them.
The floating space structures pictured here by the orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope span a few light months.
The Great Nebula in Carina itself spans about 30
light years,
lies about 7,500 light years away,
and can be seen with a small telescope
toward the constellation of Keel(Carina).
APOD: 2019 September 30 - Orion Rising over Brazil
Explanation:
Have you seen Orion lately?
The next few months will be the best for seeing this familiar constellation as it rises continually earlier in the night.
However, Orion's stars and
nebulas won't look
quite as colorful to the eye as they do in this
fantastic camera image.
In the featured image,
Orion
was captured by camera showing its full colors last month
over a Brazilian copal tree from
Brazil's
Central-West Region.
Here the cool red giant
Betelgeuse
takes on a strong orange hue as the brightest star on the far left.
Otherwise, Orion's hot blue
stars are numerous, with
supergiant Rigel
balancing Betelgeuse at the upper right, Bellatrix at the upper left, and
Saiph at the lower right.
Lined up in Orion's belt (bottom to top) are
Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka
all about 1,500
light-years away, born of the constellation's well studied
interstellar clouds.
And if a "star" toward the upper right
Orion's sword
looks reddish and fuzzy to you, it should.
It's the stellar nursery known as the
Great Nebula of Orion.
APOD: 2019 August 21 - The Orion You Can Almost See
Explanation:
Do you recognize this constellation?
Although it is one of the
most recognizable star groupings on the sky,
this is a
more full Orion than you can see --
an Orion only revealed with long exposure digital
camera imaging and
post-processing.
Here the cool
red giant
Betelgeuse
takes on a strong orange tint as the brightest star at the lower left.
Orion's hot blue stars are numerous, with
supergiant
Rigel balancing Betelgeuse on the upper right, and
Bellatrix at the upper left.
Lined up in
Orion's belt are three stars
all about 1,500
light-years away, born from the constellation's well-studied
interstellar clouds.
To the right of Orion's belt is a bright but fuzzy patch that might also
look familiar -- the stellar nursery known as
Orion's Nebula.
Finally, just barely visible to the
unaided eye but quite striking here is
Barnard's Loop -- a huge gaseous emission nebula surrounding Orion's Belt and Nebula discovered over 100 years ago by the pioneering Orion photographer
E. E. Barnard.
APOD: 2019 August 17 - 1901 Photograph: The Orion Nebula
Explanation:
By the turn of the 20th century advances in photography
contributed an important
tool for astronomers.
Improving photographic materials,
long exposures, and new telescope designs produced astronomical
images with details not visible at
the
telescopic eyepiece alone.
Remarkably
recognizable to astrophotographers today,
this stunning image of the star forming Orion Nebula was captured in
1901 by American astronomer and telescope designer
George Ritchey.
The original glass photographic plate, sensitive to green and blue
wavelengths, has been digitized and light-to-dark inverted
to produce a positive image.
His hand written notes indicate a 50 minute long exposure that ended at
dawn and a reflecting telescope
aperture of 24 inches
masked to 18 inches to improve the sharpness of the recorded image.
Ritchey's plates from over a
hundred years ago preserve astronomical data and can still be used for
exploring astrophysical processes.
APOD: 2019 June 5 - The Interstellar Clouds of Orion
Explanation:
The constellation of Orion is much more than three stars in a row.
It is a direction in space that is
rich with impressive nebulas.
To better appreciate this well-known swath of sky, a new
long exposure image
was taken over several clear nights in January, February and March.
After 23 hours of camera time and
untold hours of image processing, the featured collage in the light of
hydrogen,
oxygen, and
sulfur
was produced spanning over 40 times the
angular diameter of
the Moon.
Of the many interesting details that have become visible,
one that particularly draws the eye is
Barnard's Loop,
the bright red orange arc just to the right of the image center.
The Rosette Nebula is not the giant orange nebula just to the left of the image center -- that is larger but lesser known nebula known as the
Meissa Ring.
The Rosette Nebula is visible, though: it is the bright orange, blue and white nebula near the image bottom.
The bright orange star just left of the frame center is
Betelgeuse,
while the bright blue star on the upper right is
Rigel.
About those
famous three stars that cross the belt of
Orion the Hunter --
in this busy frame they can be hard to locate, but a
discerning eye
will find them just to the right of the image center.
APOD: 2019 May 7 - The Great Nebula in Carina
Explanation:
What's happening in the center of the Carina Nebula?
Stars are forming, dying, and leaving an
impressive tapestry of dark dusty filaments.
The entire
Carina Nebula, cataloged as NGC 3372, spans over 300
light years
and lies about 8,500 light-years away in the
constellation of Carina.
The nebula is composed predominantly of
hydrogen gas, which
emits the pervasive red glow seen in this
highly detailed featured image.
The blue glow in the center is created by a trace amount of glowing
oxygen.
Young and massive stars located in the nebula's center
expel dust when they explode in supernovae.
Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula's center,
was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then
faded dramatically.
APOD: 2019 April 3 - Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula
Explanation:
The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone.
A deep exposure shows that the
dark familiar shaped indentation,
visible just below center, is part of a
vast complex of absorbing
dust and
glowing gas.
To bring out details of the
Horsehead's pasture,
an amateur astronomer used a backyard telescope in
Austria
to accumulate and artistically combine
7.5 hours of images in the light of
Hydrogen (red),
Oxygen (green), and
Sulfur (blue).
The resulting
spectacular picture details an intricate
tapestry of gaseous wisps
and dust-laden
filaments that were created and
sculpted over eons by
stellar winds and
ancient supernovas.
The Flame Nebula
is visible just to the left of the Horsehead, while
the bright star on the upper left is
Alnilam, the central star in
Orion's Belt.
The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500
light years distant towards the constellation of
Orion.
APOD: 2019 March 18 - Horsehead and Orion Nebulas
Explanation:
The dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing
Orion Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas.
Adrift 1,500
light-years
away in one of the night sky's
most recognizable
constellations,
they appear in opposite corners of the above
stunning two-panel mosaic.
The familiar Horsehead
nebula appears as a dark cloud on the lower left, a small
silhouette
notched against the glow of hydrogen
(alpha) gas,
here tinted orange.
Alnitak is the easternmost star in
Orion's belt and can be found
to the left of the
Horsehead.
Below Alnitak is the
Flame Nebula, with clouds of
bright emission and
dramatic dark dust lanes.
The magnificent emission region, the
Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right,
surrounded by the blue glow of reflecting dust.
Immediately to its left is a prominent
reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man.
Pervasive tendrils
of glowing hydrogen gas are easily
traced
throughout the region.
APOD: 2019 February 27 - Magnetic Orion
Explanation:
Can magnetism affect how stars form?
Recent analysis of Orion data from the
HAWC+ instrument on the airborne
SOFIA observatory
indicate that, at times, it can.
HAWC+ is able to measure the
polarization of far-infrared light which can reveal the alignment of
dust grains by expansive ambient
magnetic fields.
In the
featured image,
these magnetic fields are shown as curvy lines superposed on an
infrared image of the
Orion Nebula taken by a
Very Large
Telescope in
Chile.
Orion's
Kleinmann-Low Nebula is visible slightly to the upper right of the image center, while bright stars of the
Trapezium cluster
are visible just to the lower left of center.
The Orion Nebula at about l300
light years distant is the nearest major
star formation region to the
Sun.
APOD: 2019 February 2 - LDN 1622: Dark Nebula in Orion
Explanation:
The silhouette of an intriguing
dark nebula
inhabits this cosmic scene.
Lynds' Dark Nebula
(LDN) 1622 appears against a faint
background of glowing hydrogen gas only easily seen in long telescopic
exposures of the region.
LDN 1622 lies near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy,
close on the sky to
Barnard's
Loop,
a large cloud surrounding the rich
complex of emission nebulae found
in the Belt and Sword
of Orion.
But the obscuring dust of LDN 1622 is thought to be much closer
than Orion's more famous nebulae, perhaps only 500 light-years away.
At that distance, this 1 degree wide field of view
would span less than 10 light-years.
Its foreboding appearance lends this dark expanse a popular name,
the Boogeyman Nebula.
APOD: 2019 January 2 - The Orion Nebula in Infrared from WISE
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion is an intriguing place.
Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small
fuzzy patch in the
constellation of Orion.
But
this image,
an illusory-color four-panel mosaic taken in different bands of
infrared light with the
Earth orbiting
WISE observatory, shows the
Orion Nebula
to be a bustling
neighborhood of recently formed stars,
hot gas, and dark dust.
The power behind much of the
Orion Nebula (M42) is the stars of the
Trapezium star cluster, seen
near the center of the
featured image.
The orange glow surrounding the
bright stars pictured here is their own
starlight reflected
by intricate dust filaments that
cover much of the region.
The current
Orion Nebula cloud complex, which
includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
APOD: 2018 December 27 - The Great Carina Nebula
Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky, the
Great
Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years,
one of our galaxy's largest star forming
regions.
Like the smaller, more northerly
Great Orion Nebula, the
Carina Nebula is easily visible to the
unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500
light-years it is some 5 times farther away.
This
gorgeous telescopic close-up
reveals remarkable details of the region's central glowing filaments of
interstellar gas
and obscuring cosmic dust clouds.
The field of view is over 50 light-years across.
The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including
the stars of open cluster
Trumpler 14
(above and left of center) and the still enigmatic variable
Eta Carinae, a
star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun.
Eta Carinae
is the brightest star, centered here just below
the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324).
While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion,
X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula
has been a veritable
supernova
factory.
APOD: 2018 December 2 - The Fairy of Eagle Nebula
Explanation:
The dust sculptures of the Eagle Nebula are evaporating.
As powerful starlight whittles away these
cool cosmic mountains, the
statuesque pillars that remain
might be imagined as mythical beasts.
Featured here is one of several striking
dust pillars of the
Eagle Nebula
that might be described as a gigantic alien
fairy.
This fairy, however, is ten
light years tall and spews radiation much hotter than
common fire.
The greater Eagle Nebula, M16,
is actually a giant evaporating shell of gas and
dust inside of which is a growing
cavity filled with a spectacular stellar nursery currently forming an
open cluster of stars.
This great pillar, which is about 7,000 light years away, will
likely evaporate away in about 100,000 years.
The featured image in scientifically
re-assigned colors was
released
in 2005 as part of the
fifteenth anniversary celebration of the
launch of the
Hubble Space Telescope.
APOD: 2018 October 14 - Orion in Red and Blue
Explanation:
When did Orion become so flashy?
This colorful rendition of part of the
constellation of Orion comes from red light emitted by
hydrogen and
sulfur
(SII), and blue-green light emitted by
oxygen
(OIII).
Hues on the
featured image
were then digitally reassigned to be indicative of their
elemental origins -- but also striking to the
human eye.
The breathtaking composite was
painstakingly composed from
hundreds of images which took nearly 200 hours to collect.
Pictured, Barnard's Loop, across the image bottom,
appears to cradle interstellar constructs including the intricate
Orion Nebula seen just right of center.
The Flame Nebula can also be quickly located,
but it takes a careful eye to identify the slight indentation of the dark
Horsehead Nebula.
As to Orion's flashiness -- a leading explanation for the origin of
Barnard's Loop is a
supernova blast that occurred about two million years ago.
APOD: 2018 August 5 - Trapezium: At the Heart of Orion
Explanation:
Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at
the heart of the Orion Nebula,
are four hot, massive stars
known as
the Trapezium.
Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius,
they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster.
Ultraviolet ionizing radiation from the
Trapezium stars,
mostly from the brightest star
Theta-1
Orionis C
powers the complex star forming region's entire visible glow.
About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster was
even more compact in its younger years and a
recent dynamical study indicates that
runaway stellar collisions
at an earlier age may have formed a black hole
with more than 100 times the mass of
the Sun.
The presence of a
black hole within the cluster
could explain the observed high velocities of the
Trapezium stars.
The Orion Nebula's distance of some 1,500
light-years would make it the
closest known black hole to planet Earth.
APOD: 2018 May 20 - In the Heart of the Tarantula Nebula
Explanation:
In the heart of monstrous
Tarantula Nebula lies huge bubbles of energetic gas,
long filaments of dark dust, and unusually massive stars.
In the center of this heart, is a
knot of stars so dense that it was once thought to be a single star.
This star cluster, labeled as
R136 or NGC 2070,
is visible just above the center of the
featured image and home to a great number of hot young stars.
The energetic light from these stars continually ionizes nebula gas,
while their energetic particle wind blows
bubbles and defines intricate filaments.
The
representative-color picture, a digital synthesis of images from the
NASA/ESA orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope and
ESO's ground-based
New Technology Telescope, shows great details of the
LMC nebula's tumultuous center.
The Tarantula Nebula, also known as the
30 Doradus nebula, is one of the
largest
star-formation regions known, and has been creating
unusually strong episodes of
star formation every few million years.
APOD: 2018 May 9 - The Red Rectangle Nebula from Hubble
Explanation:
How was the unusual Red Rectangle nebula created?
At the nebula's center is an aging
binary star system
that surely powers the nebula but does not, as yet, explain its colors.
The unusual shape of the
Red Rectangle
is likely due to a thick dust torus which pinches the otherwise spherical
outflow into tip-touching
cone shapes.
Because we view the torus edge-on, the boundary edges of the
cone shapes
seem to form an X.
The distinct rungs suggest the
outflow occurs in fits and starts.
The unusual colors of the nebula are
less well understood, however, and
speculation holds that they are partly provided by
hydrocarbon molecules that may actually be
building blocks for organic life.
The Red Rectangle nebula lies about 2,300
light years away
towards
the constellation of the Unicorn
(Monoceros).
The nebula is shown here in great detail as recently reprocessed image from
Hubble Space Telescope.
In a few million years, as one of the central stars becomes
further depleted of nuclear fuel,
the Red Rectangle nebula will likely
bloom into a
planetary nebula.
APOD: 2018 March 21 - Camera Orion
Explanation:
Do you recognize this constellation?
Although it is one of the
most recognizable star groupings on the sky, Orion's icons
don't look quite as colorful to the eye as they do to a camera.
In this 20-image digitally-composed mosaic, cool
red giant
Betelgeuse
takes on a strong orange tint as the brightest star at the upper left.
Orion's hot blue stars are numerous, with
supergiant
Rigel balancing Betelgeuse at the lower right, and
Bellatrix at the upper right
Lined up in
Orion's belt are three stars
all about 1,500
light-years away, born from the constellation's well-studied
interstellar clouds.
Below Orion's belt a reddish and fuzzy patch that might also
look familiar -- the stellar nursery known as
Orion's Nebula.
Finally, just barely visible to the unaided eye but quite striking here by camera is
Barnard's Loop -- a huge gaseous emission nebula surrounding Orion's Belt and Nebula discovered over 100 years ago by the pioneering Orion photographer
E. E. Barnard.
APOD: 2018 February 18 - LL Ori and the Orion Nebula
Explanation:
Stars can make waves in the Orion Nebula's sea of gas and dust.
This esthetic close-up
of cosmic clouds and stellar winds
features LL Orionis, interacting with the
Orion Nebula flow.
Adrift in Orion's
stellar nursery
and still in its formative years, variable star
LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than
the wind from our own
middle-aged Sun.
As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is
formed, analogous to the
bow
wave of a boat moving through water or
a plane traveling at supersonic speed.
The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of
center is LL Ori's cosmic
bow shock, measuring about half a light-year across.
The slower gas is flowing away from the
Orion Nebula's hot central star
cluster, the Trapezium, located off the upper left corner
of the picture.
In three dimensions,
LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like a
bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the "bottom" edge.
This beautiful painting-like photograph
is part of a
large mosaic view of
the complex
stellar nursery in Orion, filled with a myriad of
fluid
shapes associated with
star formation.
APOD: 2018 January 17 - In the Valley of Orion
Explanation:
This exciting and unfamiliar view
of the Orion Nebula is a visualization based on
astronomical data
and movie rendering techniques.
Up close and personal with a famous stellar nursery
normally seen
from 1,500 light-years away, the digitally modeled
frame transitions from a visible light representation based on
Hubble data on the left to infrared data from the
Spitzer Space Telescope on the right.
The perspective at the center looks along a valley over a
light-year wide, in the wall of the region's giant molecular cloud.
Orion's valley ends in a cavity carved by the energetic winds
and radiation of the massive central stars of the
Trapezium star cluster.
The single frame is part of a multiwavelength, three-dimensional video
that lets the viewer experience an immersive,
three
minute flight through the Great Nebula of Orion.
APOD: 2018 January 9 - Bright Planetary Nebula NGC 7027 from Hubble
Explanation:
It is one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky -- what should it be named?
First discovered in 1878, nebula
NGC 7027 can be seen toward the
constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) with a
standard backyard telescope.
Partly because it appears there as only an indistinct spot,
it is rarely referred to with a moniker.
When imaged with the Earth-orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope,
however, great details are revealed.
Studying Hubble images of
NGC 7027
have led to the
understanding
that it is a
planetary nebula
that began expanding about
600 years ago,
and that the cloud of gas and dust is unusually massive as it
appears to contain about three times the mass of our Sun.
Pictured here in assigned colors, the resolved, layered,
and dust-laced features of NGC 7027 might remind
sky enthusiasts of a familiar icon that could be the basis for an informal name.
A
leading previous suggestion was the
Pillow Nebula, but please feel free to
make new suggestions -- for example, in an
online APOD discussion forum.
APOD: 2017 November 29 - M42: The Great Orion Nebula
Explanation:
Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the
nearby stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula.
The Nebula's glowing gas
surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar
molecular cloud.
Many of the filamentary structures visible in the
featured image are actually
shock waves -
fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas.
The Orion Nebula spans about 40
light years
and is located about 1500 light years away in the
same spiral arm
of our Galaxy as the
Sun.
The Great Nebula in
Orion can be found with the
unaided eye just below and to the left of the easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular
constellation Orion.
The featured image,
taken last month, shows a two-hour exposure of the nebula in three colors.
The whole Orion Nebula cloud complex,
which includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
APOD: 2017 June 13 - The Great Nebula in Carina
Explanation:
In one of the brightest parts of
Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur.
NGC 3372, known as the
Great Nebula in Carina,
is home to massive stars and changing nebulas.
The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324),
the bright structure just to the right of the image center,
houses several of these massive stars and has itself
changed its appearance.
The entire Carina Nebula,
captured here, spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the
constellation of Carina.
Eta Carinae, the
most energetic star
in the nebula,
was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but
then faded dramatically.
While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion,
X-ray
images indicate that much of the
Great Nebula in Carina has been a veritable
supernova
factory.
APOD: 2017 June 4 - Orion: Belt, Flame, and Horsehead
Explanation:
What surrounds the famous belt stars of Orion?
A deep exposure shows everything from dark nebula to star clusters,
all embedded in an extended
patch of
gaseous wisps in the greater
Orion
Molecular
Cloud
Complex.
The brightest three stars,
appearing diagonally on the left of the featured image are indeed the
famous three stars that make up the
belt of Orion.
Just below Alnitak, the lowest of the
three belt stars, is the
Flame Nebula, glowing with
excited hydrogen gas and immersed in filaments of dark brown dust.
Just to the right of
Alnitak lies the
Horsehead Nebula, a
dark indentation of
dense dust that has perhaps the most recognized nebular shapes on the sky.
The dark molecular cloud, roughly 1,500
light years distant, is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is seen primarily because it is backlit by the nearby massive star
Sigma Orionis.
The Horsehead Nebula will slowly shift its
apparent shape over the next few million years and will eventually be destroyed by the
high-energy starlight.
APOD: 2017 March 21 - Fast Stars and Rogue Planets in the Orion Nebula
Explanation:
Start with the constellation of Orion.
Below Orion's belt
is a fuzzy area known as the Great Nebula of Orion.
In this nebula is a bright star cluster known as the
Trapezium,
marked by four bright stars near the image center.
The newly born stars in the
Trapezium and
surrounding regions show the
Orion Nebula
to be one of the most active areas of star formation to be found in our area of
the Galaxy.
In Orion,
supernova explosions and close interactions between stars have created
rogue planets and stars that rapidly move through space.
Some of these
fast stars have been found by
comparing different images
of this region taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope many years apart.
Many of the stars in the
featured image, taken in visible and near-infrared light, appear
unusually red
because they are seen through
dust that scatters away much of their blue light.
APOD: 2017 March 12 - At the Heart of Orion
Explanation:
Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the heart of
the
Orion Nebula, are four hot, massive stars
known as
the Trapezium.
Tightly gathered within a region
about 1.5 light-years in radius,
they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster.
Ultraviolet ionizing radiation from the Trapezium stars,
mostly from the brightest star
Theta-1
Orionis C
powers the complex star forming region's entire visible glow.
About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster was
even more compact in its younger years and a
dynamical study
indicates that
runaway stellar collisions
at an earlier age may have formed a black hole
with more than 100 times the mass of the Sun.
The presence of a black hole within the cluster
could explain the observed high velocities of the Trapezium stars.
The Orion Nebula's distance of some 1,500 light-years
would make it the closest known black hole to planet Earth.
APOD: 2017 March 8 - Dust, Gas, and Stars in the Orion Nebula
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion,
an immense, nearby
starbirth region,
is probably the most famous of all
astronomical nebulas.
Here, filaments of dark dust and glowing gas
surround hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1500
light-years away.
In the featured deep image shown in assigned colors,
part of the nebula's center is shown as taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope.
The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the
unaided eye near the
easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation
Orion.
In addition to housing a bright
open cluster of stars known as the
Trapezium, the
Orion Nebula contains many
stellar nurseries.
These nurseries contain much
hydrogen gas, hot young stars,
proplyds, and
stellar jets
spewing material at high speeds.
Also known as
M42 and
M43, the
Orion Nebula spans about 40
light years and is located in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
APOD: 2016 December 4 - Official Star Names for Orion
Explanation:
Familiar stars in Orion and constellations across the sky now have official names.
Over the past year, the
International Astronomical Union, the
only
body officially tasked with naming stars,
approved names already in common use for
227 of the brightest stars, including the most famous stars on the sky
Sirius,
Polaris, and
Betelgeuse.
Pictured, the
constellation of Orion is shown with several of these
now-official star names superposed.
Spanning about 30 degrees,
this breath-taking vista
stretches across the well-known constellation from
head to toe (left to right) and beyond.
The common names for all three stars in Orion's belt
are also now official.
At 1,500 light years away, the Great Orion
Nebula is the closest large star forming region, here visible
just right and below center.
Also visible are famous nebulae including the
Horsehead Nebula and the
Witch Head Nebula.
Of course, the Orion Nebula and bright stars are
easy to see with the
unaided eye, but dust clouds and emission from the extensive interstellar
gas in this nebula-rich complex,
are too faint and much harder to record.
In the
featured mosaic of broadband telescopic images, additional image
data acquired with a narrow
hydrogen alpha filter was used to
bring out the pervasive tendrils of energized
atomic hydrogen gas like in the arc of the giant
Barnard's Loop.
APOD: 2016 October 14 - Herschel's Orion
Explanation:
This
dramatic image peers within M42, the Orion Nebula,
the closest large star-forming region.
Using data at infrared wavelengths from the
Herschel
Space Observatory, the false-color composite
explores the natal cosmic cloud
a mere 1,500 light-years distant.
Cold, dense filaments
of dust that
would otherwise be dark at visible wavelengths are shown
in reddish hues.
Light-years long, the filaments weave together
bright spots that correspond to regions of collapsing
protostars.
The brightest bluish area near the top of the frame is warmer
dust heated by the hot Trapezium
cluster stars that also power the nebula's visible glow.
Herschel data has recently indicated
ultraviolet starlight from the hot newborn stars
likely contributes to the creation of
carbon-hydrogen molecules,
basic
building blocks of life.
This Herschel image spans about 3 degrees on the sky.
That's about 80 light-years at the distance of the Orion Nebula.
APOD: 2016 September 28 - NGC 3576: The Statue of Liberty Nebula
Explanation:
What's happening in the
Statue of Liberty nebula?
Bright stars and interesting molecules are forming and being
liberated.
The
complex
nebula resides in the star forming region called RCW 57.
This image showcases dense knots of dark interstellar dust,
bright stars that have formed in the past few million years, fields of glowing hydrogen gas
ionized by these stars, and
great loops of gas expelled by dying stars.
A detailed study of NGC 3576, also known as
NGC 3582 and
NGC 3584,
uncovered at least 33 massive stars in the end stages of formation,
and the clear presence of the complex carbon molecules known as
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
PAHs are thought to be created in the cooling gas of
star forming regions,
and their development in the
Sun's formation nebula five billion years
ago may have been an important step in the
development of life on Earth.
The
featured image was taken at the
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in
Chile.
APOD: 2016 July 18 - The Orion Nebula in Infrared from HAWK I
Explanation:
The deepest infrared image of the Orion Nebula has uncovered a bonanza of previously unknown low-mass stars and -- quite possibly -- free floating planets.
The picturesque
nebula is best known in
visible light where it shows a many
bright stars and bright glowing gas.
Catalogued as
M42, the
Orion
Nebula at a distance of 1300
light years is the closest major star forming region to Earth.
One can
peer into Orion's pervasive dust
in
infrared light, as was done again recently with the sophisticated
HAWK-I camera attached to one of the
European Southern Observatory's
Very Large Telescopes
in the high mountains of
Chile.
High resolution versions of the
featured infrared deep image show many points of light, many of which are surely
brown dwarf stars but some of which are best fit by an unexpectedly high abundance of
free-floating planets.
Understanding
how these low mass objects formed is important to
understanding
star formation generally and may even help humanity to better understand the early years of our Solar System.
APOD: 2016 May 27 - The Great Carina Nebula
Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky, the
Great
Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years,
one of our galaxy's largest star forming
regions.
Like the smaller, more northerly
Great Orion Nebula, the
Carina Nebula is easily visible to the
unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500
light-years it is some 5 times farther away.
This
gorgeous telescopic close-up
reveals remarkable details of the region's central glowing filaments of
interstellar gas
and obscuring cosmic dust clouds.
The field of view is over 50 light-years across.
The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including
the stars of open cluster
Trumpler 14
(below and right of center) and the still enigmatic variable
Eta Carinae, a
star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun.
Eta Carinae is the brightest star, seen here
just above
the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324).
While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion,
X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula
has been a veritable
supernova
factory.
APOD: 2016 May 22 - LL Orionis: When Cosmic Winds Collide
Explanation:
What created this great arc in space?
This arcing, graceful structure is actually a
bow shock
about half a light-year across, created as the wind from young star LL Orionis
collides with the
Orion Nebula flow.
Adrift in Orion's
stellar nursery
and still in its formative years, variable star
LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than
the wind from our own
middle-aged sun.
As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is
formed, analogous to the
bow
wave of a
boat moving through water or a plane traveling at
supersonic speed.
The slower gas is flowing away from the
Orion Nebula's hot central star cluster, the
Trapezium, located off the lower right hand edge
of the picture.
In three dimensions,
LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like a
bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the "bottom" edge.
The complex stellar nursery in Orion shows a myriad of similar
fluid
shapes associated with
star formation, including
the bow shock surrounding a faint star at the upper right.
Part of
a mosaic
covering the Great Nebula in Orion,
this composite color image was recorded
in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope.
APOD: 2016 May 17 - The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion is a colorful place.
Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small
fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion.
Long exposure,
multi-wavelength images like this, however, show the
Orion Nebula to be a busy neighborhood of young stars, hot gas, and dark
dust.
This digital composite
features not only three colors of
visible light but four colors of
infrared light taken by
NASA's orbiting
Spitzer Space Telescope as well.
The power behind much of the
Orion Nebula
(M42) is the
Trapezium -
four of the brightest stars in the nebula.
Many of the
filamentary structures visible are actually
shock waves - fronts
where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas.
The Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is
located about 1500
light years away in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
APOD: 2016 April 13 - Orion in Red and Blue
Explanation:
When did Orion become so flashy?
This colorful rendition of part of the
constellation of Orion comes from red light emitted by
hydrogen and
sulfur
(SII), and blue-green light emitted by
oxygen
(OIII).
Hues on the
featured image
were then digitally reassigned to be indicative of their
elemental origins -- but also striking to the
human eye.
The breathtaking composite was
painstakingly composed from
hundreds of images which took nearly 200 hours to collect.
Pictured, Barnard's Loop, across the image bottom,
appears to cradle interstellar constructs including the intricate
Orion Nebula seen just right of center.
The Flame Nebula can also be quickly located,
but it takes a careful eye to identify the slight indentation of the dark
Horsehead Nebula.
As to Orion's flashiness -- a leading explanation for the origin of
Barnard's Loop is a
supernova blast that occurred about two million years ago.
APOD: 2016 March 28 - Orion's Belt and Sword over Teide's Peak
Explanation:
The southern part of Orion, the famous constellation and mythical hunter, appears quite picturesque posing here over a famous volcano.
Located in the
Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa,
the snow-peaked
Teide is one of the largest volcanoes on Earth.
Lights from a group planning to
summit Teide before dawn are visible below the
volcano's peak.
In this composite of exposures taken from the same location one night last month, the
three iconic
belt stars of
Orion are seen just above the peak, while the famous
Orion Nebula and the rest of
Orion's sword
are visible beyond the volcano's left slope.
Also visible in the long duration sky image are the
Horsehead Nebula,
seen as a dark indentation on the red
emission nebula
to the belt's left, and the Flame Nebula,
evident just above and to the right of the Horsehead.
APOD: 2016 March 23 - The Great Nebula in Carina
Explanation:
In one of the brightest parts of
Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur.
NGC 3372, known as the
Great Nebula in Carina,
is home to massive stars and changing nebulas.
The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324),
the bright structure just above the image center,
houses several of these massive stars and has itself
changed its appearance.
The entire Carina Nebula
spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the
constellation of Carina.
Eta Carinae, the
most energetic star
in the nebula,
was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but
then faded dramatically.
Eta
Carinae is the brightest star
near the
image center,
just left of the Keyhole Nebula.
While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion,
X-ray
images indicate that much of the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable
supernova
factory.
APOD: 2016 January 12 - The California Nebula
Explanation:
What's California doing in space?
Drifting through the Orion Arm of the spiral Milky Way Galaxy,
this
cosmic cloud
by chance echoes the outline of
California
on the west coast of the
United States.
Our own Sun also lies within the Milky Way's
Orion
Arm, only about 1,500 light-years from the
California Nebula.
Also known as NGC 1499,
the classic emission nebula is around 100
light-years long.
On the featured image,
the most prominent glow of the California Nebula is the red light characteristic of
hydrogen
atoms recombining with long
lost electrons, stripped away (ionized)
by energetic starlight.
The star most likely providing the energetic starlight that
ionizes
much of the nebular gas is the bright, hot, bluish
Xi Persei
just to the right of the nebula.
A regular target for astrophotographers, the California Nebula
can be spotted
with a wide-field telescope under a dark sky
toward the constellation of
Perseus,
not far from the Pleiades.
APOD: 2015 December 29 - Dust of the Orion Nebula
Explanation:
What surrounds a hotbed of star formation?
In the case of the
Orion Nebula -- dust.
The
entire Orion field, located about 1600
light years away, is inundated with intricate and
picturesque filaments of dust.
Opaque to visible light,
dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive
cool stars and expelled by a strong outer
wind of particles.
The Trapezium and other forming
star clusters
are embedded in the nebula.
The intricate filaments of dust surrounding
M42 and
M43 appear brown in the
featured image, while central glowing gas is highlighted in red.
Over the next few million years much of
Orion's dust will be slowly
destroyed by the very stars now being formed, or dispersed into the
Galaxy.
APOD: 2015 November 23 - A 212 Hour Exposure of Orion
Explanation:
The constellation of Orion is much more than three stars in a row.
It is a direction in space that is
rich with impressive nebulas.
To better appreciate this well-known swath of sky, an
extremely long exposure was taken over many clear nights in 2013 and 2014.
After 212 hours of camera time and an
additional year of processing, the featured 1400-exposure collage spanning over 40 times the
angular diameter of
the Moon emerged.
Of the many interesting details that have become visible, one that particularly draws the eye is
Barnard's Loop, the bright red circular filament arcing down from the middle.
The Rosette Nebula is not the giant red nebula near the top of the image -- that is a larger but lesser known nebula known as Lambda Orionis.
The Rosette Nebula is visible, though: it is the red and white nebula on the upper left.
The bright orange star just above the frame center is
Betelgeuse, while the bright blue star on the lower right is
Rigel.
Other famous nebulas visible include
the Witch Head Nebula,
the Flame Nebula,
the Fox Fur Nebula, and, if you know just where to look,
the comparatively small Horsehead Nebula.
About those
famous three stars that cross the belt of
Orion the Hunter --
in this busy frame they can be hard to locate, but a
discerning eye will find them just below and to the right of the image center.
APOD: 2015 November 16 - A Blazing Fireball between the Orion Nebula and Rigel
Explanation:
What's happening to that meteor?
A few days ago, a bright fireball was
photographed from the
Alps mountain range in
Switzerland as it blazed across the sky.
The fireball, likely from the
Taurids meteor shower,
was notable not only for how bright it was, but for the rare orange light it created that lingered for several minutes.
Initially, the orange glow made it seem like the
meteor trail was on fire.
However, the orange glow, known as a
persistent train, originated neither from fire nor sunlight-reflecting smoke.
Rather, the persistent train's glow emanated from atoms in the
Earth's atmosphere in the path of the meteor -- atoms that had an
electron
knocked away and emit light during reacquisition.
Persistent trains often drift,
so that the long 3-minute exposure actually captured the initial
wind-blown displacement of these bright former
ions.
The featured image was acquired when trying to image the famous
Orion Nebula, visible on the upper left.
The bright blue star
Rigel, part of the
constellation of Orion, is visible to the right.
This week the
fireball-rich Taurids meteor shower continues to be active even though it has passed its peak,
while the more active
Leonids meteor shower is just peaking.
APOD: 2015 November 4 - The Great Orion Nebula M42
Explanation:
The Great Nebula
in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the
most famous nebulae in the sky.
The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars
are on the right in this sharp and colorful image that includes the bluish reflection nebulae
NGC 1977 and friends on the left.
Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible
giant molecular
cloud complex,
these eye-catching nebulas represent only a small
fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of
interstellar material.
Within the
well-studied
stellar nursery, astronomers have also
identified
what appear to be numerous infant planetary systems.
The gorgeous skyscape spans nearly two degrees or about 45
light-years
at the Orion Nebula's estimated distance of 1,500 light-years.
APOD: 2015 September 7 - The Shark Nebula
Explanation:
There is no sea on Earth large enough to contain the Shark nebula.
This predator
apparition poses us no danger, though, as it is composed only of interstellar gas and
dust.
Dark dust like that
featured here
is somewhat like cigarette smoke and
created
in the cool atmospheres of giant
stars.
After being expelled with gas and
gravitationally recondensing, massive stars may
carve intricate structures into their birth cloud using their high energy light and fast
stellar winds as sculpting tools.
The heat they generate evaporates the murky
molecular cloud as well as causing ambient hydrogen gas to disperse and glow red.
During disintegration, we humans can enjoy
imagining these
great clouds as
common icons, like we do for
water clouds
on Earth.
Including smaller dust nebulae such as Lynds Dark Nebula 1235 and Van den Bergh 149 & 150, the
Shark nebula spans about 15 light years and lies about 650
light years away toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia
(Cepheus).
APOD: 2015 March 16 - The Clouds of Orion the Hunter
Explanation:
Cradled in cosmic dust and glowing hydrogen,
stellar
nurseries in Orion the
Hunter
lie at
the edge of giant molecular clouds some 1,500 light-years away.
Spanning about 30 degrees,
this breath-taking vista
stretches across the well-known constellation from
head to toe (left to right) and beyond.
At 1,500 light years away, the Great Orion
Nebula is the closest large star forming region, here visible
just right and below center.
To its left are the
Horsehead Nebula,
M78, and
Orion's belt stars.
Sliding your cursor over the picture will also find
red giant Betelgeuse at the hunter's shoulder,
bright blue Rigel at his foot,
the Witch Head Nebula above -- and illuminated by -- Rigel,
and the glowing Lambda Orionis
(Meissa) nebula on the left, near Orion's head.
Of course, the Orion Nebula and bright stars are
easy to see with the
unaided eye, but dust clouds and emission from the extensive interstellar
gas in this nebula-rich complex,
are too faint and much harder to record.
In this mosaic of broadband telescopic images, additional image
data acquired with a narrow
hydrogen alpha filter was used to
bring out the pervasive tendrils of energized
atomic hydrogen gas like in the arc of the giant
Barnard's Loop.
APOD: 2015 January 19 - Infrared Orion from WISE
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion is an intriguing place.
Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small
fuzzy patch in the
constellation of Orion.
But
this image,
an illusory-color four-panel mosaic taken in different bands of
infrared light with the
Earth orbiting
WISE observatory, shows the
Orion Nebula
to be a bustling
neighborhood of recently formed stars,
hot gas, and dark dust.
The power behind much of the
Orion Nebula (M42) is the stars of the
Trapezium star cluster, seen
near the center of the
above wide field image.
The orange glow surrounding the
bright stars pictured here is their own
starlight reflected
by intricate dust filaments that
cover much of the region.
The current
Orion Nebula cloud complex, which
includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
APOD: 2015 January 2 - At the Heart of Orion
Explanation:
Near the center of this
sharp cosmic portrait, at
the heart of the
Orion Nebula, are four hot, massive stars
known as
the Trapezium.
Tightly gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius,
they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster.
Ultraviolet ionizing radiation from the Trapezium stars,
mostly from the brightest star
Theta-1
Orionis C
powers the complex star forming region's entire visible glow.
About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster was
even more compact in its younger years and a
dynamical study
indicates that
runaway stellar collisions
at an earlier age may have formed a black hole
with more than 100 times the mass of the Sun.
The presence of a black hole within the cluster
could explain the observed high velocities of the Trapezium stars.
The Orion Nebula's distance of some 1,500 light-years
would make it the closest known black hole to planet Earth.
APOD: 2014 December 9 - The Flame Nebula in Visible and Infrared
Explanation:
What lights up the Flame Nebula?
Fifteen hundred
light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark
dust lanes,
appears, on the left, like a billowing fire.
But
fire,
the rapid acquisition of
oxygen,
is not what makes this
Flame glow.
Rather the bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in the
Belt of Orion
visible just to the right of the nebula, shines energetic light into the
Flame that knocks electrons away from the
great clouds of hydrogen
gas that reside there.
Much of the glow results when the electrons and
ionized hydrogen recombine. The above false-color picture
of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024)
was taken is a composite of both visible and
infrared
light, the later energy band being
where a young star cluster
becomes visible.
The Flame Nebula is part of the
Orion Molecular Cloud Complex,
a star-forming region that includes the famous
Horsehead Nebula.
APOD: 2014 November 11 - Orion in Gas, Dust, and Stars
Explanation:
The constellation of Orion holds much more than three stars in a row.
A deep exposure shows everything from dark nebulae to star clusters,
all embedded in an extended
patch of
gaseous wisps in the greater
Orion
Molecular
Cloud
Complex.
The brightest three stars
on the far left are indeed the
famous three stars that make up the
belt of Orion.
Just below Alnitak, the lowest of the
three belt stars, is the
Flame Nebula, glowing with
excited hydrogen gas and immersed in filaments of dark brown dust.
Below and left of the frame center and just to the right of
Alnitak lies the
Horsehead Nebula, a
dark indentation of
dense dust that has perhaps the most recognized nebular shapes on the sky.
On the upper right lies
M42, the
Orion Nebula,
an energetic caldron of tumultuous gas,
visible to the unaided eye,
that is giving birth to a
new open cluster of stars.
Immediately to the left of
M42
is a prominent bluish reflection nebula sometimes called the
Running Man that houses many bright
blue stars.
The featured image covers an area with objects that are roughly 1,500
light years away and spans about 75 light years.
APOD: 2014 July 17 - 3D Homunculus Nebula
APOD: 2014 June 28 - Orion Arising
APOD: 2014 April 8 - M42: Inside the Orion Nebula
APOD: 2014 March 26 - M78 and Reflecting Dust Clouds
APOD: 2014 March 25 - Orion Nebula in Surrounding Dust
APOD: 2014 January 15 - Spitzer's Orion
APOD: 2013 November 28 - NGC 1999: South of Orion
APOD: 2013 October 29 - Horsehead and Orion Nebulas
APOD: 2013 October 15 - The Great Carina Nebula
APOD: 2013 August 26 - Bright Planetary Nebula NGC 7027 from Hubble
APOD: 2013 June 4 - Orion Nebula in Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Sulfur
APOD: 2013 May 21 - The Red Rectangle Nebula from Hubble
APOD: 2013 March 20 - M42: Inside the Orion Nebula
APOD: 2013 February 13 - Infrared Orion from WISE
APOD: 2013 February 3 - LL Ori and the Orion Nebula
APOD: 2012 December 19 - NGC 5189: An Unusually Complex Planetary Nebula
APOD: 2012 October 6 - At the Heart of Orion
APOD: 2012 September 9 - Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula
APOD: 2012 July 15 - Orion Nebula: The Hubble View
APOD: 2012 May 16 - Star Formation in the Tarantula Nebula
APOD: 2012 April 23 - Evaporating Blobs of the Carina Nebula
APOD: 2012 February 12 - Orion in Gas, Dust, and Stars
APOD: 2012 February 6 - Dust of the Orion Nebula
APOD: 2011 October 24 - HH 222: The Waterfall Nebula
APOD: 2011 September 17 - Spitzer's Orion
APOD: 2011 September 13 - Great Orion Nebulae
APOD: 2011 June 9 - The Great Carina Nebula
APOD: 2011 February 24 - NGC 1999: South of Orion
APOD: 2010 October 23 - Orion: Head to Toe
APOD: 2010 October 5 - Horsehead and Orion Nebulas
APOD: 2010 September 19 - Dark Clouds of the Carina Nebula
APOD: 2010 March 2 - M78 and Reflecting Dust Clouds in Orion
APOD: 2010 January 12 - The Flame Nebula in Infrared
APOD: 2009 December 22 - Planetary Systems Now Forming in Orion
APOD: 2009 October 2 - Comet and Orion
APOD: 2009 September 29 - Orion in Gas, Dust, and Stars
APOD: 2009 August 26 - Classic Orion Nebulae
APOD: 2009 May 24 - Carina Nebula Panorama from Hubble
APOD: 2009 April 11 - The Big Picture
APOD: 2009 March 31 - In the Heart of the Tarantula Nebula
APOD: 2009 March 10 - Horsehead and Orion Nebulae
APOD: 2009 February 22 - Orion Nebula: The Hubble View
APOD: 2009 February 16 - The Great Carina Nebula
APOD: 2009 February 11 - Orion s Belt Continued
APOD: 2009 February 10 - Orion s Belt
APOD: 2008 December 8 - The Dark Doodad Nebula
APOD: 2008 November 26 - The Horsehead Nebula in Orion
APOD: 2008 October 23 - Great Orion Nebulae
APOD: 2008 October 15 - Camera Orion
APOD: 2008 May 28 - Dark Clouds of the Carina Nebula
APOD: 2008 April 8 - Southern Orion: From Belt to Witch
APOD: 2008 April 6 - Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula
APOD: 2008 April 3 - South of Orion
APOD: 2008 March 18 - M78 and Reflecting Dust Clouds in Orion
APOD: 2008 February 21 - Orion's Horsehead Nebula
APOD: 2007 October 27 - The Great Carina Nebula
APOD: 2007 October 6 - X-Ray Stars of Orion
APOD: 2007 May 11 - LDN 1622: Dark Nebula in Orion
APOD: 2007 April 25 - Carina Nebula Panorama from Hubble
APOD: 2007 March 26 - Bullet Pillars in Orion
APOD: 2007 January 25 - Orion's Cradle
APOD: 2007 January 6 - The Orion Deep Field
APOD: 2006 December 8 - NGC 2174: Emission Nebula in Orion
APOD: 2006 November 20 - M42: Wisps of the Orion Nebula
APOD: 2006 October 15 - An Orion Deep Field
APOD: 2006 March 16 - Eta and Keyhole in the Carina Nebula
APOD: 2006 February 21 - Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula
APOD: 2006 January 30 - NGC 1999: South of Orion
APOD: 2006 January 20 - LL Ori and the Orion Nebula
APOD: 2006 January 19 - Orion Nebula, The Hubble View
APOD: 2005 September 18 - M42: Wisps of the Orion Nebula
APOD: 2005 May 19 - X Ray Stars in the Orion Nebula
APOD: 2005 April 20 - Barnard's Loop Around Orion
APOD: 2005 April 19 - Orion in Infrared
APOD: 2005 March 21 - Orion's Horsehead Nebula
APOD: 2004 September 27 - The Great Nebula in Orion
APOD: 2004 July 13 - Orion Nebula in Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Sulfur
APOD: 2004 May 17 - NGC 3372: The Great Nebula in Carina
APOD: 2004 March 15 - The Orion Nebula from CFHT
APOD: 2004 February 19 - McNeil's Nebula
APOD: 2004 February 2 - The Tarantula Nebula from Spitzer
APOD: 2004 January 15 - An Orion Deep Field
APOD: 2003 November 15 - LL Orionis: When Cosmic Winds Collide
APOD: 2003 February 25 - M42: Wisps of the Orion Nebula
APOD: 2003 February 7 - Orion on Film
APOD: 2003 January 29 - Orion's Horsehead Nebula
APOD: 2002 December 20 - Colorful Clouds of Orion
APOD: 2002 May 30 - Orion Nebulosities
APOD: 2002 April 20 - Orion Nebula: The 2MASS View
APOD: 2002 March 13 - LL Orionis: When Cosmic Winds Collide
APOD: 2002 February 13 - The Great Nebula in Orion
APOD: 2002 February 11 - Reflection Nebula M78
APOD: 2001 July 22 - NGC 1977: Blue Reflection Nebula in Orion
APOD: 2001 January 30 - The Orion Nebula from VLT
APOD: 2000 November 22 - The Orion Nebula in Hydrogen
APOD: 2000 August 27 - Orion's Horsehead Nebula
APOD: 2000 July 11 - The Crab Nebula in Blue and White
APOD: 2000 April 24 - Reflection Nebula M78
APOD: 2000 March 2 - NGC 1999: Reflection Nebula In Orion
APOD: 2000 February 4 - X-Ray Stars Of Orion
APOD: 2000 January 11 - The Rosette Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur
APOD: October 27, 1999 - In the Heart of the Tarantula Nebula
APOD: September 14, 1999 - The Colorful Orion Nebula
APOD: July 19, 1999 - NGC 3372: The Great Nebula in Carina
APOD: July 13, 1999 - The Flame Nebula in Infrared
APOD: May 22, 1999 - M42: A Mosaic of Orion's Great Nebula
APOD: March 2, 1999 - The Kleinmann Low Nebula
APOD: February 2, 1999 - The Orion Nebula from Subaru
APOD: January 15, 1999 - Reflections Of Orion
APOD: January 3, 1999 - Orion's Horsehead Nebula
APOD: June 12, 1998 - Orion Nebula: The 2MASS View
APOD: April 21, 1998 - Water From Orion
APOD: February 1, 1998 - NGC 1977: Blue Reflection Nebula in Orion
APOD: January 27, 1998 - The Great Nebula in Orion
APOD: December 1, 1997 - Orion: The Big Picture
APOD: October 25, 1997 - Orion's Horsehead Nebula
APOD: May 11, 1997 - M42: A Mosaic of Orion's Great Nebula
APOD: December 7, 1996 - Planetary Systems Now Forming in Orion
APOD: October 2, 1996 - Orion's Horsehead Nebula
APOD: March 20, 1996 - NGC 1977: Blue Reflection Nebula in Orion
APOD: November 21, 1995 - M42: Orion Nebula Mosaic
APOD: September 25, 1995 - Orion's Horsehead Nebula
APOD: July 3, 1995 - The Great Nebula in Orion
Explanation:
If
you're looking
for something
to print with that new
3D printer, try out a copy of the Homunculus Nebula.
The dusty, bipolar cosmic cloud is around 1 light-year across
but is slightly
scaled
down for printing to
about 1/4 light-nanosecond or 80 millimeters.
The full scale Homunculus surrounds Eta Carinae,
famously unstable
massive stars in a binary system
embedded in the extensive
Carina Nebula
about 7,500 light-years distant.
Between 1838 and 1845, Eta Carinae
underwent the Great Eruption becoming
the second brightest star in planet Earth's night sky
and ejecting the Homunculus Nebula.
The
new 3D model of the still expanding Homunculus
was created by
exploring
the nebula with the European Southern Observatory's
VLT/
Explanation:
Orion's belt runs just along the horizon, seen
through Earth's atmosphere and rising in
this
starry snapshot from low Earth orbit
on board the International Space Station.
The belt stars,
Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka
run right to left
and Orion's sword,
home to the great Orion Nebula, hangs above his belt,
an orientation unfamiliar to
denizens of the planet's
northern hemisphere.
That puts
bright star Rigel, at the foot of Orion,
still higher above Orion's belt.
Of course the brightest celestial beacon in
the frame is Sirius, alpha star of the
constellation Canis Major.
The station's
Destiny Laboratory module is in the foreground
at the top right.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion,
an immense, nearby
starbirth region,
is probably the most famous of all
astronomical nebulas.
Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1500
light-years away.
In the above deep image composite in assigned colors taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope
wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident.
The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the
unaided eye near the
easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation
Orion.
In addition to housing a bright
open cluster of stars known as the
Trapezium, the
Orion Nebula contains many
stellar nurseries.
These nurseries contain much
hydrogen gas, hot young stars,
proplyds, and
stellar jets
spewing material at high speeds.
Also known as
M42, the
Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
Explanation:
An eerie blue glow and ominous columns of
dark dust highlight M78 and other bright
reflection nebula
in the constellation of Orion.
The dark filamentary
dust not only absorbs light, but also reflects the
light of several bright blue stars that
formed recently in the nebula.
Of the two reflection nebulas
pictured above, the more famous nebula is
M78, in the image center, while
NGC 2071 can be seen to its lower left.
The same type of scattering that colors the
daytime sky further enhances the blue color.
M78 is about five
light-years across and visible through a small telescope.
M78 appears above only as it was
1600 years ago,
however, because that is how long it takes light to go from
there to here.
M78
belongs to the larger
Orion
Molecular
Cloud
Complex
that contains the
Great Nebula in Orion and the
Horsehead Nebula.
Explanation:
What surrounds a hotbed of star formation?
In the case of the
Orion Nebula -- dust.
The
entire Orion field, located about 1600
light years away, is inundated with intricate and
picturesque filaments of dust.
Opaque to visible light,
dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive
cool stars and expelled by a strong outer wind of particles.
The Trapezium and other forming star clusters are embedded in the nebula.
The intricate filaments of dust surrounding
M42 and
M43 appear gray in the
above image, while central glowing gas is highlighted in brown and blue.
Over the next few million years much of
Orion's dust will be slowly destroyed by the very stars now being formed, or dispersed into the Galaxy.
Explanation:
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like
the Orion Nebula,
an immense stellar nursery some 1,500 light-years away.
This stunning false-color
view spans about 40 light-years across the region,
constructed using
infrared data
from the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Compared to its
visual wavelength appearance,
the brightest portion of
the nebula is likewise centered on Orion's young, massive, hot stars,
known as the Trapezium Cluster.
But the infrared image also detects the nebula's many protostars, still
in the process of formation, seen here in red hues.
In fact, red spots along the dark dusty filament to the left
of the bright cluster include the protostar cataloged as HOPS 68,
recently
found to have
crystals of the silicate mineral olivine within its
protostellar envelope.
Explanation:
South of the large star-forming region known as the
Orion Nebula, lies bright blue reflection nebula
NGC 1999.
At the edge of the
Orion molecular
cloud complex some 1,500 light-years distant, NGC 1999's
illumination is provided by the
embedded variable star V380 Orionis.
That nebula is marked with a dark sideways T-shape near center in
this
cosmic vista that spans about 10 light-years.
The dark shape was once assumed to be an obscuring dust cloud
seen in silhouette against the bright reflection nebula.
But recent
infrared images
indicate the shape is likely a hole blown through the nebula
itself by energetic young stars.
In fact,
this
region abounds with energetic young stars
producing jets and outflows with luminous shock waves.
Cataloged as Herbig-Haro (HH) objects, named for astronomers
George Herbig and Guillermo Haro,
the shocks look like red gashes in
this scene that includes HH1 and HH2 just below NGC 1999.
The stellar jets
push through the surrounding
material at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second.
Explanation:
The dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing
Orion Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas.
Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of
the night sky's
most recognizable
constellations,
they appear in opposite corners of the above
stunning mosaic.
The familiar Horsehead
nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette
notched against the long red glow at the lower left.
Alnitak is the easternmost star in
Orion's belt and is seen as the
brightest star to the left of the
Horsehead.
Below Alnitak is the
Flame Nebula, with clouds of
bright emission and
dramatic dark dust lanes.
The magnificent emission region, the
Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right.
Immediately to its left is a prominent
reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man.
Pervasive tendrils
of glowing hydrogen gas are easily
traced
throughout the region.
Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky,
the Great
Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years,
one of our galaxy's largest star forming
regions.
Like the smaller, more northerly
Great Orion Nebula, the
Carina Nebula is easily visible to the
unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500
light-years it is some 5 times farther away.
This
gorgeous telescopic portrait
reveals remarkable details of the region's glowing filaments of
interstellar gas
and obscuring cosmic dust clouds.
Wider than the Full Moon in
angular size,
the field of view stretches over 300 light-years across the nebula.
The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including
the still enigmatic variable
Eta Carinae, a
star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun.
Eta
Carinae is the brightest star
near the
image center,
just left of the dusty
Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324).
While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion,
X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula
has been a veritable
supernova
factory.
Explanation:
It is one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky -- what should it be named?
First discovered in 1878, nebula
NGC 7027 can be seen toward the
constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) with a
standard backyard telescope.
Partly because it appears there as only an indistinct spot,
it is rarely referred to with a moniker.
When imaged with the Earth-orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope,
however, great details are revealed.
Studying Hubble images of
NGC 7027
have led to the
understanding
that it is a
planetary nebula
that began expanding about
600 years ago,
and that the cloud of gas and dust is unusually massive as it
appears to contain about three times the mass of our Sun.
Pictured
above
in assigned colors, the resolved, layered, and dust-laced features of NGC 7027 might remind
sky enthusiasts of a familiar icon that could be the basis for an informal name.
Please feel free to
make suggestions --
some suggestions are being recorded, for example, in an
online APOD discussion forum.
Explanation:
Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the
nearby stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula.
The Nebula's glowing gas
surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar
molecular cloud.
Many of the filamentary structures visible in the
above image are actually
shock waves -
fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas.
The Orion Nebula spans about 40
light years
and is located about 1500 light years away in the
same spiral arm
of our Galaxy as the Sun.
The Great Nebula in
Orion can be found with the
unaided eye just below and to the left of the easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion.
The above image shows the nebula in three colors specifically emitted by
hydrogen,
oxygen, and
sulfur gas.
The whole Orion Nebula cloud complex,
which includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
Explanation:
How was the unusual Red Rectangle nebula created?
At the nebula's center is an aging
binary star system
that surely powers the nebula but does not, as yet, explain its colors.
The unusual shape of the
Red Rectangle
is likely due to a thick dust torus which pinches the otherwise spherical
outflow into tip-touching
cone shapes.
Because we view the torus edge-on, the boundary edges of the
cone shapes
seem to form an X.
The distinct rungs suggest the outflow occurs in fits and starts.
The unusual colors of the nebula are
less well understood, however, and
speculation holds that they are partly provided by
hydrocarbon molecules that may actually be
building blocks for organic life.
The Red Rectangle nebula lies about 2,300 light years away
towards
the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros).
The nebula is shown above in great detail as
recently reprocessed
image from Hubble Space Telescope.
In a few million years, as one of the central stars becomes
further depleted of nuclear fuel, the Red Rectangle nebula will likely bloom into a
planetary nebula.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion,
an immense, nearby
starbirth region,
is probably the most famous of all
astronomical nebulas.
Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1500
light-years away.
In the above deep image in
assigned colors highlighted by
emission in
oxygen and
hydrogen,
wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident.
The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the
unaided eye near the
easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation
Orion.
In addition to housing a bright
open cluster of stars known as the
Trapezium, the
Orion Nebula contains many
stellar nurseries.
These nurseries contain much
hydrogen gas, hot young stars,
proplyds, and
stellar jets
spewing material at high speeds.
Also known as
M42, the
Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion is a intriguing place.
Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small
fuzzy patch in the
constellation of Orion.
But
this image, an illusory-color composite of four colors of
infrared light taken with the
Earth orbiting
WISE observatory, shows the
Orion Nebula
to be a bustling neighborhood or recently formed stars,
hot gas, and dark dust.
The power behind much of the
Orion Nebula (M42) is the stars of the
Trapezium star cluster, seen
near the center of the
above wide field image.
The eerie green glow surrounding the
bright stars pictured here is their own
starlight reflected
by intricate dust filaments that
cover much of the region.
The current
Orion Nebula cloud complex, which
includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
Explanation:
This esthetic close-up
of cosmic clouds and stellar winds
features LL Orionis, interacting with the
Orion Nebula flow.
Adrift in Orion's
stellar nursery
and still in its formative years, variable star
LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than
the wind from our own
middle-aged Sun.
As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is
formed, analogous to the
bow
wave of a boat moving through water or
a plane traveling at supersonic speed.
The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of
center is LL Ori's cosmic
bow shock, measuring about half a light-year across.
The slower gas is flowing away from the
Orion Nebula's hot central star
cluster, the Trapezium, located off the upper left corner
of the picture.
In three dimensions,
LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like a
bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the "bottom" edge.
The beautiful picture is part of a
large mosaic view of
the complex
stellar nursery in Orion, filled with a myriad of
fluid
shapes associated with
star formation.
Explanation:
Why is this nebula so complex?
When a star like our Sun is dying, it will cast off its outer layers, usually into a simple overall shape.
Sometimes this shape is a
sphere, sometimes a
double lobe, and sometimes a
ring or a
helix.
In the case of planetary nebula
NGC 5189,
however, no such simple structure has emerged.
To help find out why, the Earth-orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope
recently observed NGC 5189 in great detail.
Previous findings
indicated the existence of multiple epochs of material outflow,
including a recent one that created a bright but distorted
torus
running horizontally
across image center.
Results appear consistent with a hypothesis that the
dying star
is part of a binary star system with a
precessing symmetry axis.
Given this new data, though, research is sure to continue.
NGC 5189 spans about three light years and lies about 3,000 light years
away toward the southern constellation of the Fly
(Musca).
Explanation:
Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at
the heart of the Orion Nebula,
are four hot, massive stars
known as
the Trapezium.
Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius,
they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster.
Ultraviolet ionizing radiation from the Trapezium stars,
mostly from the brightest star
Theta-1
Orionis C
powers the complex star forming region's entire visible glow.
About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster was
even more compact in its younger years and a
recent dynamical study
indicates that
runaway stellar collisions
at an earlier age may have formed a black hole
with more than 100 times the mass of the Sun.
The presence of a black hole within the cluster
could explain the observed high velocities of the Trapezium stars.
The Orion Nebula's distance of some 1500 light-years
would make it the closest known black hole to planet Earth.
Explanation:
The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone.
A deep exposure shows that the
dark familiar shaped indentation,
visible just below center, is part of a
vast complex of absorbing
dust and
glowing gas.
To bring out details of the
Horsehead's pasture, amateur astronomers at the
Star Shadow Remote Observatory in
New Mexico,
USA
fixed a
small telescope on the
region for over seven hours filtering out all but a
very specific color of
red light emitted by
hydrogen.
They then added the image to a full color frame taken over three hours.
The resulting
spectacular picture details an intricate tapestry of gaseous wisps and dust-laden
filaments that were created and
sculpted over eons by
stellar winds and
ancient supernovas.
The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500
light years distant towards the constellation of
Orion.
Two stars from the Orion's Belt
can be found in the
above image.
Explanation:
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like
the Orion Nebula.
Also known as
M42,
the nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away.
The Orion Nebula offers one of the best opportunities
to study how stars are born partly because it is the nearest large
star-forming region,
but also because the nebula's
energetic stars have
blown away
obscuring gas and dust clouds that would otherwise block
our view - providing an intimate look at a
range of ongoing stages
of
starbirth and evolution.
This detailed image of the
Orion Nebula is the sharpest ever, constructed using data from the
Hubble Space Telescope's
Advanced Camera for Surveys and the European Southern Observatory's
La Silla 2.2 meter telescope.
The mosaic
contains a billion pixels at full resolution
and reveals about 3,000 stars.
Explanation:
The largest, most violent star forming region known in the whole
Local Group of galaxies
lies in our neighboring galaxy the
Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).
Were the Tarantula Nebula at the distance of the
Orion Nebula -- a local star forming region --
it would take up fully half the sky.
Also called
30 Doradus, the red and pink gas indicates a massive
emission nebula, although
supernova remnants and
dark nebula also exist there.
The bright knot of stars
left of center
is called R136 and contains many of the most
massive, hottest, and brightest stars known.
The
above image is one of the largest mosaics ever created by
observations of the
Hubble Space Telescope and has revealed unprecedented details of this enigmatic star forming region.
The image is being released to celebrate the
22nd anniversary of Hubble's launch.
Explanation:
No, they are not alive -- but they are dying.
The unusual blobs found in the
Carina nebula, some of which are seen floating on the upper right, might best be described as
evaporating.
Energetic light and winds from nearby stars are breaking apart the dark
dust grains that make the iconic forms opaque.
Ironically the blobs, otherwise known as dark
molecular clouds,
frequently create in their midst the very stars that later
destroy them.
The floating space mountains
pictured above by the orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope span a few light months.
The Great Nebula in Carina itself spans about 30 light years, lies about 7,500 light years
away, and can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of Keel
(Carina).
Explanation:
The constellation of Orion holds much more than three stars in a row.
A deep exposure shows everything from dark nebula to star clusters,
all embedded in an extended
patch of
gaseous wisps in the greater
Orion
Molecular
Cloud
Complex.
The brightest three stars
on the far left are indeed the
famous three stars that make up the
belt of Orion.
Just below Alnitak, the lowest of the
three belt stars, is the
Flame Nebula, glowing with
excited hydrogen gas and immersed in filaments of dark brown dust.
Below the frame center and just to the right of
Alnitak lies the
Horsehead Nebula, a
dark indentation of
dense dust that has perhaps the most recognized nebular shapes on the sky.
On the upper right lies
M42, the
Orion Nebula,
an energetic caldron of tumultuous gas,
visible to the unaided eye,
that is giving birth to a
new open cluster of stars.
Immediately to the left of
M42
is a prominent bluish reflection nebula sometimes called the
Running Man that houses many bright
blue stars.
The above image, a digitally stitched composite taken over several nights, covers an area with objects that are roughly 1,500
light years away and spans about 75 light years.
Explanation:
What surrounds a hotbed of star formation?
In the case of the
Orion Nebula -- dust.
The
entire Orion field, located about 1600
light years away, is inundated with intricate and
picturesque filaments of dust.
Opaque to visible light,
dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive
cool stars and expelled by a strong outer wind of particles.
The Trapezium and other forming star clusters are embedded in the nebula.
The intricate filaments of dust surrounding
M42 and
M43 appear brown in the
above image, while central glowing gas is highlighted in red.
Over the next few million years much of
Orion's dust will be slowly destroyed by the very stars now being formed, or dispersed into the Galaxy.
Explanation:
What created the Waterfall Nebula?
No one knows.
The structure seen in the region of
NGC 1999 in the Great
Orion Molecular Cloud complex
is one of the more mysterious structures yet found on the sky.
Designated HH-222, the elongated gaseous stream stretches about ten light years and emits an unusual array of colors.
One hypothesis is that the gas filament results from the wind from a young star impacting a nearby molecular cloud.
That would not explain, however, why the
Waterfall and fainter streams all appear to converge on a bright but unusual non thermal radio source located toward the upper left of the curving structure.
Another hypothesis is that the unusual radio source originates from a binary system containing a hot
white dwarf,
neutron star, or
black hole, and that the Waterfall is just a jet from this energetic system.
Such systems, though, are typically strong X-rays emitters, and no X-rays have been detected.
For now, this case remains unsolved.
Perhaps well-chosen
future observations and clever deductive reasoning will unlock the true origin of this enigmatic wisp in the future.
Explanation:
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like
the Orion Nebula,
an immense stellar nursery some 1,500 light-years away.
This stunning false-color
view spans about 40 light-years across the region,
constructed using
infrared data
from the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Compared to its
visual wavelength appearance,
the brightest portion of
the nebula is likewise centered on Orion's young, massive, hot stars,
known as the
Trapezium
Cluster.
But the infrared image also detects the nebula's many protostars, still
in the process of formation, seen here in red hues.
In fact, red spots along the dark dusty filament to the left
of the bright cluster include the protostar cataloged as HOPS 68, recently
found to have
crystals of the silicate mineral olivine within its
protostellar envelope.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula
in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the
most famous nebulas in the sky.
The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars
are on the right in this sharp and colorful image that includes the smaller
nebula M43
near center and dusty, bluish reflection nebulae
NGC 1977 and friends on the left.
Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible
giant molecular
cloud complex,
these eye-catching nebulae represent only a small
fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of
interstellar material.
Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also
identified what appear to be numerous
infant planetary systems.
The gorgeous skyscape spans nearly two degrees or about 45
light-years
at the Orion Nebula's estimated distance of 1,500 light-years.
Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky,
the Great
Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years,
one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions.
Like the smaller, more northerly
Great Orion Nebula, the
Carina Nebula is easily visible to the
unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500
light-years it is some 5 times farther away.
This
gorgeous telescopic portrait
reveals remarkable details of the region's glowing filaments of
interstellar gas
and obscuring cosmic dust clouds.
Wider than the Full Moon in
angular size,
the field of view
stretches nearly 100 light-years across the nebula.
The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including
the still enigmatic variable
Eta Carinae, a
star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun.
Eta
Carinae is the brightest star
at
the left, near the dusty
Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324).
While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion,
X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula
has been a veritable
supernova factory.
Explanation:
South of the large star-forming region known as the
Orion Nebula, lies bright blue reflection nebula
NGC 1999.
Also at the edge of the
Orion molecular
cloud complex some 1,500 light-years distant, NGC 1999's
illumination is provided by the
embedded variable star V380 Orionis.
The nebula is marked with a dark sideways T-shape near center in this
broad
cosmic vista that spans over 10 light-years.
The dark shape was once assumed to be an obscuring dust cloud
seen in silhouette against the bright reflection nebula.
But recent
infrared images
indicate the shape is likely a hole blown through the nebula
itself by energetic young stars.
In fact,
this
region abounds with energetic young stars
producing jets and outflows that create luminous shock waves.
Cataloged as Herbig-Haro (HH) objects, named for astronomers
George Herbig and Guillermo Haro,
the shocks appear bright red in
this view that includes
HH1 and HH2 just below NGC 1999.
The stellar jets and
outflows push through the surrounding
material at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second.
Explanation:
Cradled in cosmic dust and glowing hydrogen,
stellar
nurseries in Orion the
Hunter
lie at
the edge of a giant molecular cloud some 1,500 light-years away.
Spanning nearly 25 degrees, this breath-taking vista
stretches across the well-known constellation
from head to toe
(left to right).
The Great Orion
Nebula, the closest large star forming region, is right of center.
To its left are the
Horsehead Nebula,
M78, and
Orion's belt stars.
Sliding your cursor over the picture will also find
red giant Betelgeuse at the hunter's shoulder,
bright blue Rigel
at his foot, and the glowing Lambda Orionis
(Meissa) nebula at the far left, near Orion's head.
Of course, the Orion Nebula and bright stars are
easy to see with the
unaided eye, but dust clouds and emission from the extensive interstellar
gas in this nebula-rich complex,
are too faint and much harder to record.
In this mosaic of broadband telescopic images, additional image
data acquired with a narrow
hydrogen alpha filter was used to
bring out the pervasive tendrils of energized
atomic hydrogen gas and the arc of the giant
Barnard's Loop.
Explanation:
The dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing
Orion Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas.
Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of
the night sky's
most recognizable
constellations,
they appear in opposite corners of the above
stunning mosaic.
The familiar Horsehead
nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette
notched against the long red glow at the lower left.
Alnitak is the easternmost star in
Orion's belt and is seen as the
brightest star to the left of the
Horsehead.
Below Alnitak is the
Flame Nebula, with clouds of
bright emission and
dramatic dark dust lanes.
The magnificent emission region, the
Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right.
Immediately to its left is a prominent bluish
reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man.
Pervasive tendrils
of glowing hydrogen gas are easily
traced
throughout the region.
Explanation:
What dark forms lurk in the mists of the Carina Nebula?
These ominous figures are actually
molecular clouds,
knots of molecular gas and
dust so thick they have become
opaque.
In comparison, however,
these clouds are typically much less dense than
Earth's atmosphere.
Pictured above is part of the most detailed image of the
Carina Nebula ever taken, a part where dark
molecular clouds are particularly prominent.
The image has recently been
retaken and then re-colored based on light emitted by oxygen.
The entire
Carina Nebula
spans over 300
light years
and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the
constellation of Carina.
NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina,
is home to massive stars and changing nebula.
Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula, was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then
faded dramatically.
Wide-field annotated and zoomable versions of the larger image composite are also available.
Explanation:
An eerie blue glow and ominous columns of
dark dust highlight M78 and other bright
reflection nebula
in the constellation of Orion.
The dark filamentary
dust not only absorbs light, but also reflects the
light of several bright blue stars that
formed recently in the nebula.
Of the two reflection nebulas
pictured above, the more famous nebula is
M78, in the image center, while
NGC 2071 can be seen to its lower left.
The same type of scattering that colors the
daytime sky further enhances the blue color.
M78
is about five
light-years across and visible through a small telescope.
M78 appears above only as it was
1600 years ago,
however, because that is how long it takes light to go from
there to here.
M78
belongs to the larger
Orion
Molecular
Cloud
Complex
that contains the
Great Nebula in Orion and the
Horsehead Nebula.
Explanation:
What lights up the Flame Nebula? Fifteen hundred
light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark
dust lanes,
appears, on the left, like a billowing fire.
But
fire,
the rapid acquisition of
oxygen,
is not what makes this
Flame glow.
Rather the bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in the
Belt of Orion
visible just above the nebula, shines energetic light into the
Flame that knocks electrons away from the
great clouds of hydrogen
gas that reside there.
Much of the glow results when the electrons and
ionized hydrogen recombine. The above false-color picture of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024)
was taken in
infrared
light, where a young star cluster
becomes visible.
The Flame Nebula is part of the
Orion Molecular Cloud Complex,
a star-forming region that includes the famous
Horsehead Nebula,
visible above on the far right.
Explanation:
How do planets form?
To help find out, the
Hubble Space Telescope
was tasked to take a detailed look
at one of the more interesting of all astronomical
nebulae, the Great Nebula in Orion.
The Orion nebula, visible with the
unaided eye near the
belt in the
constellation of Orion,
is an immense nearby
starbirth region and
probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas.
Insets to the above mosaic show
numerous proplyds, many of which are stellar nurseries likely harboring
planetary systems in formation.
Some proplyds glow as close disks surrounding bright stars light up, while other
proplyds
contain disks further from their host star, contain cooler
dust, and hence appear as dark
silhouettes against brighter gas.
Studying this dust, in particular, is giving insight for how planets are forming.
Many proplyd images also show
arcs that are
shock waves
- fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas.
The Orion Nebula lies about 1,500
light years distant and is located in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy
as our Sun.
Explanation:
These colorful panels both
feature a familiar astronomical sight: the stellar nursery known as
the Great Orion Nebula.
They also offer an intriguing and unfamiliar detail of the
nebula rich skyscape -- a passing comet.
Recorded this weekend with a remotely operated telescope in
New Mexico, the right hand image was taken on
September 26 and
the left on September 27.
Comet 217P Linear
sports an extended greenish tail and lies
above the bluish
Running Man
reflection nebula near the top of
both frames.
Nearby and moving rapidly through the night sky, the comet's
position clearly shifts against the cosmic nebulae and background
stars from one night to the next.
In fact, the comet was a mere 5 light-minutes away on September
27, compared to 1,500 light-years for the Orion Nebula.
Much too faint to be seen with the unaided eye,
Comet
217P Linear
is a small periodic comet with an orbital period of
about 8 years.
At its most distant point from the Sun,
the comet's
orbit is calculated to reach beyond the orbit of Jupiter
At its closest point to the Sun, the comet still lies just
beyond the orbit of planet Earth.
Explanation:
The constellation of Orion holds much more than three stars in a row.
A deep exposure shows everything from dark nebula to star clusters,
all imbedded in an extended
patch of
gaseous wisps in the greater
Orion
Molecular
Cloud
Complex.
The brightest three stars
on the far left are indeed the
famous three stars that make up the
belt of Orion.
Just below Alnitak, the lowest of the
three belt stars, is the
Flame Nebula, glowing with
excited hydrogen gas and immersed in filaments of dark brown dust.
Below the frame center and just to the right of
Alnitak lies the
Horsehead Nebula, a
dark indentation of
dense dust that has perhaps the most recognized nebular shapes on the sky.
On the upper right lies
M42, the
Orion Nebula,
an energetic caldron of tumultuous gas,
visible to the unaided eye,
that is giving birth to a
new open cluster of stars.
Immediately to the left of
M42
is a prominent bluish reflection nebula sometimes called the
Running Man that houses many bright blue stars.
The
above image, a digitally stitched composite taken over several nights, covers an area with objects that are roughly 1,500
light years away and spans about 75 light years.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula
in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the
most famous nebulae in the sky.
The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars
are near the center of this colorful
deep
sky image that includes the smaller
nebula M43
and dusty, bluish reflection nebulae
NGC 1977 and friends on the left.
Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible giant molecular
cloud
complex, these eye-catching nebulae represent only a small
fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of
interstellar
material.
Captured with very modest equipment, the gorgeous skyscape was
awarded Best in Show at the
2009
Starfest International Salon of Astrophotography.
Judges commented that the detail and shading were exquisite
in this version of a classic astronomical image.
The field spans nearly 3 degrees or about 75 light-years
at the Orion Nebula's estimated distance of 1,500 light-years.
Explanation:
In one of the brightest parts of
Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur.
NGC 3372, known as the
Great Nebula in Carina,
is home to massive stars and changing nebulas.
Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula,
was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then faded dramatically.
The
Keyhole Nebula,
visible left of center, houses several of the most massive stars
known and has also changed its appearance.
The entire Carina Nebula
spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the
constellation of Carina.
Pictured above is the most detailed
image of the Carina Nebula ever taken.
The controlled color
image
is a composite of 48 high-resolution frames taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope
two years ago.
Wide-field
annotated and
zoomable image versions are also available.
Explanation:
Intricate, glowing nebulae that shine in planet Earth's
night sky are beautiful to look at in deep images
made with telescopes and sensitive cameras.
But they are faint and otherwise invisible to the naked-eye.
That makes their relative location and extent on the sky
difficult to appreciate.
So, consider
this impressive composite image of
a wide region of the northern winter sky.
With a total exposure time of 40 hours,
the painstaking mosaic presents a
nebula-rich expanse known as the Orion-Eridanus
Superbubble
above a house in suburban Boston, USA.
Within the wide and deep view are nebulae more often seen
in narrower views, including
the Great Orion Nebula,
the Rosette Nebula,
the Seagull Nebula,
the California Nebula,
and Barnard's Loop.
The familiar constellation of Orion itself is just above the
foreground house.
Brightest star Sirius is left of the roof, and the recognizable
Pleiades star cluster is above the tree at the right.
A version of the big picture that includes simple
constellation
guidelines is
available
here.
Explanation:
In the heart of monstrous
Tarantula Nebula lies huge bubbles of energetic gas,
long filaments of dark dust, and unusually massive stars.
In the center of this heart, is a
knot of stars so dense that it was once thought to be a single star.
This star cluster, labeled as
R136 or NGC 2070,
is visible just above the center of the
above image and home to a great number of hot young stars.
The energetic light from these stars continually ionizes nebula gas,
while their energetic particle wind blows
bubbles and defines intricate filaments.
The
above representative-color picture of this great
LMC nebula details its tumultuous center.
The Tarantula Nebula, also known as the
30 Doradus nebula, is one of the
largest
star-formation regions known, and has been creating
unusually strong episodes of star formation every few million years.
Explanation:
Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of
the night sky's
most recognizable
constellations, the glowing
Orion Nebula and the dark
Horsehead Nebula are contrasting
cosmic vistas.
They appear in opposite corners of this
stunning mosaic taken with a digital camera attached to a small telescope.
The magnificent emission region, the
Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right of the picture.
Immediately to its left is a prominent bluish
reflection nebula sometimes called
the Running Man.
The Horsehead
nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette
notched against the long red glow at the lower left.
Alnitak is the easternmost star in
Orion's belt and is seen as the
brightest star to the left of the
Horsehead.
Below Alnitak is the
Flame Nebula, with clouds of
bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes.
Pervasive tendrils
of glowing hydrogen gas are easily
traced
throughout the region in
this deep field image of the same region.
Explanation:
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like
the Orion Nebula.
Also known as
M42,
the nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away.
The Orion Nebula offers one of the best opportunities
to study how stars are born partly because it is the nearest large
star-forming region,
but also because the nebula's
energetic stars have
blown away
obscuring gas and dust clouds that would otherwise block
our view - providing an intimate look at a
range of ongoing stages
of
starbirth and evolution.
This detailed image of the
Orion Nebula is the sharpest ever, constructed using data from the
Hubble Space Telescope's
Advanced Camera for Surveys and the European Southern Observatory's
La Silla 2.2 meter telescope.
The mosaic
contains a billion pixels at full resolution
and reveals about 3,000 stars.
Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky,
the Great
Carina Nebula, aka NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years,
one of our Galaxy's largest star
forming regions.
Like the smaller, more northerly
Great Orion Nebula, the
Carina Nebula is easily visible to the
unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500
light-years
it is some 5 times farther away.
This
stunning telescopic view from the
2.2-meter ESO/MPG telescope La Silla Observatory
in Chile reveals remarkable details of the region's glowing filaments of
interstellar gas and
dark cosmic dust clouds.
The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including
the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun.
Eta Carinae
is the bright star left of the central dark notch in
this field and near the dusty Keyhole
Nebula (NGC 3324).
Explanation:
Yesterday's skyscape featured
Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka,
the stars of
Orion's Belt.
Today's also presents the easternmost belt star, Alnitak, at the
bottom right of the field, surrounded by the well-known
Horsehead
and Flame nebulae.
But this view sweeps
farther to the east (left) and north (top)
detailing subtler cosmic clouds of gas and dust scattered through
the fertile, nebula rich region.
The scene is anchored at the top left by the eerie
blue glow
and ominous dark dust lanes of
reflection
nebula M78.
Like the Horsehead, the Flame, and the
Orion Nebula itself,
M78 is a readily visible part of the large
Orion
Molecular Cloud complex some 1,500 light-years distant.
Explanation:
Alnitak,
Alnilam,
and
Mintaka,
are the bright bluish stars
from east to west (left to right) along the diagonal in
this gorgeous cosmic vista.
Otherwise known as the
Belt of Orion, these
three blue supergiant stars are hotter and much more
massive than the Sun.
They lie about 1,500 light-years away, born
of Orion's
well-studied interstellar clouds.
In fact, clouds of gas and dust adrift in
this region have
intriguing and some surprisingly familiar shapes, including the
dark Horsehead
Nebula and Flame Nebula near
Alnitak at the lower
left.
The famous Orion Nebula
itself lies off the bottom of this
star field
that covers about 4.5x3.5 degrees on the sky.
This
image was taken last month with a digital camera attached to a small
telescope in
Switzerland,
and better matches
human color
perception
than a more detailed composite taken over 15
years ago.
Explanation:
What is that strange dark ribbon on the sky?
When observing the great
globular cluster NGC 4372, observers frequently take note of a
strange dark streak nearly three
degrees in length running near it.
Unnamed, the streak, actually a long molecular cloud, has become known as the
Dark Doodad Nebula.
(Doodad is slang for a
thingy or a
whatchamacallit.)
Pictured above in a rich and
colorful star-field,
the Dark Doodad Nebula can be found sweeping across the image center.
The globular star cluster NGC 4372 is visible on the image left, while the bright star gamma Musca is seen to the cluster's right.
The Dark Doodad Nebula can be
found
with strong binoculars toward the southern constellation of
the Fly
(Musca).
The above image was compiled by consecutive 45 minutes exposures taken by a small telescope from the La Frontera region in
Chile.
Explanation:
One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky,
the Horsehead Nebula in Orion, is part of a large, dark,
molecular cloud.
Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first
discovered on a
photographic plate in the late 1800s.
The red glow originates from
hydrogen
gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star
Sigma Orionis.
A blue
reflection nebula dubbed
NGC 2023 surrounds the bright star at the lower left.
The darkness of the
Horsehead is caused mostly by thick
dust,
although the lower part of the
Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left.
Streams of gas leaving the nebula are funneled by a strong
magnetic field.
Bright spots in the
Horsehead Nebula's base are
young stars just in the process of forming.
Light takes about 1500 years to reach us from the
Horsehead Nebula.
The above image
was taken earlier this month with a 0.6-meter telescope at the
Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter in
Arizona,
USA.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula
in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the
most famous nebulae in the sky.
The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars
are on the right in this sharp and colorful
two frame mosaic
that includes the smaller
nebula M43
near center and dusty, bluish reflection nebulae
NGC 1977 and friends on the left.
Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible giant molecular
cloud complex,
these eye-catching nebulae represent only a small
fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of
interstellar material.
Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also
identified what appear to be numerous
infant solar systems.
The gorgeous skyscape spans nearly two degrees or about 45 light-years
at the Orion Nebula's estimated distance of 1,500 light-years.
Explanation:
Orion, the Hunter, is one of the most easily recognizable
constellations
in planet Earth's night sky.
But Orion's stars and
nebulas don't look
quite as colorful to the eye as they do in
this lovely camera image, taken
early last month at the
Black Forest Star Party from
Cherry Springs State Park in
Pennsylvania,
USA.
In this single exposure, cool red giant
Betelgeuse
takes on a yellowish tint as the brightest star at the far left.
Otherwise Orion's hot blue stars are numerous, with
supergiant Rigel balancing Betelgeuse at the upper right, Bellatrix at the upper left, and
Saiph at the lower right.
Lined up in Orion's belt (bottom to top) are
Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka
all about 1,500
light-years away, born of the constellation's well studied
interstellar
clouds.
And if the middle "star" of
Orion's sword
looks reddish and fuzzy to you, it should.
It's the stellar nursery known as the
Great Nebula of Orion.
Explanation:
What dark forms lurk in the mists of the Carina Nebula?
These ominous figures are actually
molecular clouds,
knots of molecular gas and
dust so thick they have become
opaque.
In comparison, however, these clouds are typically much less dense than
Earth's atmosphere.
Pictured above is part of the most detailed image of the
Carina Nebula ever taken, a part where dark
molecular clouds are particularly prominent.
The entire
Carina Nebula
spans over 300
light years
and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the
constellation of Carina.
NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina,
is home to massive stars and changing nebula.
Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula, was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then
faded dramatically.
Wide-field
annotated and
zoomable versions of the larger image composite are also available.
Explanation:
Do you recognize the belt of Orion in this image?
The familiar trio of stars,
visible to the unaided eye,
can be found across the upper left.
Otherwise, the southern part of the constellation Orion has taken
on a new look in
this unusually deep and wide view
First note that the lower left belt star,
Alnitak,
is the easternmost star in Orion's belt.
Left of Alnitak is the Flame Nebula,
with clouds of bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes.
Directly below
Alnitak,
a close inspection will reveal the
Horsehead Nebula.
Farther right and below is the Orion Nebula,
M42,
itself visible to the unaided eye.
The brightest star in the frame, near the bottom right, is
Rigel.
A bright blue star, Rigel illuminates the ominously shaped dust patch known as the
Witch Head Nebula, visible as the
blue reflection nebula near the
lower right corner.
Finally, appearing as a vast red ring and encompassing the entire region, is
Barnard's Loop.
Humans
could see this entire menagerie, unaided, were their eyes
about 10,000 times more sensitive.
Explanation:
The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone.
A deep exposure shows that the
dark familiar shaped indentation,
visible just below center, is part of a
vast complex of absorbing
dust and
glowing gas.
To bring out details of the
Horsehead's pasture, amateur astronomers at the
Star Shadow Remote Observatory in
New Mexico,
USA
fixed a
small telescope on the region for over seven hours filtering out all but a
very specific color of
red light emitted by
hydrogen.
They then added the image to a full color frame taken over three hours.
The resulting
spectacular picture details an intricate tapestry of gaseous wisps and dust-laden filaments that were created and sculpted over eons by
stellar winds and
ancient supernovas.
The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500
light years
distant towards the
constellation of
Orion.
Two stars from the Orion's Belt
can be found in the
above image.
Explanation:
This tantalizing array of nebulae and stars can be found
about 2 degrees south of the famous
star-forming Orion Nebula.
The
region abounds with energetic young stars producing jets and
outflows that push through the surrounding
material at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second.
The interaction creates luminous shock
waves known as
Herbig-Haro (HH) objects.
For example, the graceful, flowing arc just right of center
is cataloged as HH 222, also called the Waterfall Nebula.
Seen below the Waterfall, HH 401 has a distinctive cone shape.
The bright bluish nebula below and left of center
is NGC 1999, a dusty cloud reflecting
light from an embedded variable star.
The entire cosmic vista
spans over 30 light-years, near the edge of the
Orion
molecular cloud
complex
some 1,500 light-years distant.
Explanation:
An eerie blue glow and ominous columns of dark dust highlight M78 and other bright
reflection nebula
in the constellation of Orion.
The dark filamentary
dust not only absorbs light, but also reflects the
light of several bright blue stars that
formed recently in the nebula.
Of the two reflection nebulas pictured above, the more famous nebula is M78, on the upper right, while NGC 2071 can be seen to its lower left.
The same type of scattering that colors the
daytime sky further enhances the blue color.
M78
is about five
light-years across and visible through a small telescope.
M78 appears
above only as it was 1600 years ago, however, because that is how long it takes light to go from
there to here.
M78
belongs to the larger
Orion Molecular Cloud Complex
that contains the
Great Nebula in Orion and the
Horsehead Nebula.
Explanation:
The Horsehead
Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky.
It is visible as the dark indentation to the red
emission nebula seen just below
and left of center in the
this photograph.
The brightest star on the left is located in the belt of the familiar
constellation Orion.
The horse-head
feature is dark because it is really an opaque
dust cloud that lies in
front of the bright red
emission nebula.
Like clouds in
Earth's atmosphere, this cosmic cloud has
assumed a
recognizable
shape by chance.
After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud
will alter its appearance.
The emission nebula's red color is caused by
electrons recombining
with
protons
to form
hydrogen atoms.
Also visible in the picture are blue
reflection nebulae that
preferentially reflect the blue light from
nearby stars.
Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky,
the Great
Carina Nebula, aka NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years,
one of our galaxy's largest star
forming regions.
Like the smaller, more northerly
Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula
is easily visible to the naked eye, though at a distance of
7,500 light-years it is some 5 times farther away.
This
stunning telescopic view reveals remarkable details of the
region's glowing filaments of interstellar gas and dark
cosmic dust clouds.
The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including
the still enigmatic variable
Eta
Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun.
Eta Carinae
is the bright star left of the central dark notch
in this field and just below the dusty Keyhole
Nebula (NGC 3324).
Explanation:
The stars of Orion shine brightly
in visible light in planet Earth's night sky.
The
constellation harbors the closest large stellar nursery,
the Great Nebula of Orion,
a mere 1,500 light-years away.
In fact, the apparently bright clump of stars near the center
of this false color Chandra
x-ray telescope picture
are the massive stars of
the Trapezium - the
young star cluster which powers much of the nebula's
visible-light glow.
The stars shown
in blue and orange are young sun-like stars; prodigious sources
of x-rays thought to be produced in hot
stellar coronae and
surface flares in a young star's strong
magnetic field.
Our middle-aged
Sun itself was
probably thousands of times
brighter in x-rays when, like
the
Trapezium stars, it was
only a few million years old.
The
x-ray image
spans about 2.5 light-years
across the central region of the Orion Nebula.
Explanation:
The silhouette of an intriguing
dark nebula
inhabits this cosmic scene, based on images from the
Palomar
Observatory Sky Survey.
Lynds' Dark Nebula
(LDN) 1622 appears against a faint background
of glowing hydrogen gas only easily seen in long telescopic
exposures of the region.
LDN 1622 lies near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy,
close on the sky to
Barnard's
Loop - a large cloud surrounding the rich
complex of emission nebulae found
in the Belt and Sword
of Orion.
But the obscuring dust of LDN 1622 is thought to be much closer
than Orion's more famous nebulae, perhaps only 500 light-years away.
At that distance, this 1 degree wide field of view
would span less than 10 light-years.
Explanation:
In one of the brightest parts of
Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur.
NGC 3372, known as the
Great Nebula in Carina,
is home to massive stars and changing nebula.
Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula,
was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then faded dramatically.
The
Keyhole Nebula,
visible left the center, houses several of the most massive stars
known and has also changed its appearance.
The entire Carina Nebula
spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the
constellation of Carina.
Pictured above is the most detailed
image of the Carina Nebula ever taken.
The controlled color
image
is a composite of 48 high-resolution frames taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope
and released to honor its 17th anniversary.
Wide-field
annotated and
zoomable image versions are also available.
Explanation:
Why are bullets of gas shooting out of the Orion Nebula?
Nobody is yet sure.
First discovered in 1983, each bullet is actually about the size of
our Solar System, and
moving at about 400 km/sec from a central source dubbed IRc2.
The age of the bullets, which can be found from their speed and distance from
IRc2, is very young -- typically less than 1,000 years.
As the
bullets rip through the interior of the
Orion Nebula,
a small percentage of iron gas causes the tip of each bullet to glow blue,
while each bullet leaves a tubular pillar that glows by the light of heated hydrogen gas.
Pictured above, the Orion bullets were captured in unprecedented detail by the adaptive optics technology of the Gemini North telescope.
M42, the Orion Nebula,
is the closest major star forming region to us and filled with changing
dust, gas, and bright stars.
The Orion Nebula, is located about 1,500
light years away and
can be seen with the unaided eye toward the
constellation of Orion.
Explanation:
Cradled in glowing hydrogen,
stellar
nurseries in Orion
lie at
the edge of a giant molecular cloud some 1,500 light-years away.
This breath-taking view
spans about 13 degrees across
the center of the well-known constellation with the
Great Orion
Nebula, the closest large star forming region,
just right of center.
The deep mosaic
also
includes (left of center), the Horsehead
Nebula, the Flame Nebula, and Orion's belt stars.
Image data acquired with a
hydrogen alpha filter adds
other remarkable features to this wide angle
cosmic vista -- pervasive tendrils of energized
atomic hydrogen gas and portions of the surrounding
Barnard's Loop.
While the Orion Nebula and belt stars are easy to see with the
unaided eye, emission from the extensive interstellar
gas is faint and much harder to record, even in telescopic views of the
nebula-rich complex.
Explanation:
Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of
the night sky's most recognizable
constellations, the glowing
Orion Nebula and the dark
Horsehead Nebula are contrasting
cosmic vistas.
But even fainter filaments of glowing gas are easily traced
throughout the region in
this
stunning composite image
that includes exposures filtered to record emission
from hydrogen atoms.
The view reveals extensive
nebulosities associated with
the giant Orion Molecular
Cloud
complex, itself hundreds of light-years across.
A magnificent emission region, the
Orion
Nebula (aka M42) lies at the
upper right of the picture.
Immediately to its left are a cluster of prominent bluish
reflection nebulae sometimes called
the Running Man.
The Horsehead
nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette
notched against the long red glow left of center.
Alnitak is the easternmost star in Orion's belt and
the brightest star to the left of the Horsehead.
Below Alnitak is the
Flame Nebula, with clouds of
bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes.
Completing the trio of Orion's belt
stars, bluish Alnilam and Mintaka form a line with Alnitak,
extending to the upper left.
Explanation:
A lesser known sight in the
nebula-rich constellation Orion,
NGC 2174
can be found with binoculars near the head of the
celestial hunter.
About 6,400 light-years distant, the glowing cosmic cloud surrounds
loose clusters of young stars.
Covering an area larger than the full Moon on the sky,
this stunning
narrow band image adopts a typical color mapping of
the atomic emission from NGC 2174.
The false-color mapping
shows otherwise red hydrogen emission in green
hues and emphasizes sulfur emission in red and oxygen in blue.
Placing your cursor on the image will reveal an alternative image
of the nebula made through broad band
filters.
The broad band image combines filters in a
closer analogy
to human vision, dominated by the
red glow of hydrogen.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby
starbirth region,
is probably the most famous of all
astronomical nebulas.
Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1500
light-years away.
In the above deep image, faint wisps and sheets of
dust and gas are particularly evident.
The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the
unaided eye just below and to the left of the
easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion.
In addition to housing a bright
open cluster of stars known as the
Trapezium, the
Orion Nebula contains many
stellar nurseries.
These nurseries contain
hydrogen gas, hot young stars,
proplyds, and
stellar jets
spewing material at high speeds.
Also known as
M42, the
Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
Explanation:
Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of
the night sky's
most recognizable
constellations, the glowing
Orion Nebula and the dark
Horsehead Nebula are contrasting
cosmic vistas.
They both appear in this stunning composite digital image
assembled from over 20 hours of data that includes exposures
filtered to record emission from hydrogen
atoms.
The view reveals extensive
nebulosities associated with
the giant Orion Molecular
Cloud
complex, itself hundreds of light-years across.
The magnificent emission region, the
Orion
Nebula (aka M42), lies at the
upper right of the picture.
Immediately to its left are a cluster of
of prominent bluish
reflection nebulae sometimes called
the Running Man.
The Horsehead
nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette
notched against the long red glow at the lower left.
Alnitak is the easternmost star in Orion's belt and
is seen as the brightest star to the left of the Horsehead.
Below Alnitak is the
Flame Nebula, with clouds of
bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes.
Fainter tendrils of glowing hydrogen gas are easily traced
throughout the region in
this
Orion deep field.
Explanation:
South is toward the top in
this
colorful close-up view of the
Great
Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), famous star-forming region of the southern sky.
Covering an area surrounding the
dusty Keyhole
Nebula (NGC 3324) near picture center,
the image spans about 40 light-years within the larger
Carina
Nebula at an estimated distance of 7,500 light-years.
Like the more northerly Orion Nebula, the bright
Carina
Nebula is easily visible to the naked-eye.
But the dramatic colors in this telescopic
picture are mapped colors,
based on three exposures through narrow filters each
intended to record the light emitted by specific atoms in
the gaseous nebula.
Sulfur is shown in blue, hydrogen in green and oxygen in red hues.
The Carina Nebula is home to
young, extremely massive stars, including the still
enigmatic variable
Eta
Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of
the Sun.
Highlighted by diffraction spikes,
Eta is just above
and right (east) of the Keyhole.
Explanation:
The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone.
A deep exposure shows that the
dark familiar shaped indentation,
visible just below center, is part of a
vast complex of absorbing
dust and
glowing gas.
To bring out details of the
Horsehead's pasture, amateur astronomers at the
Star Shadow Remote Observatory in
New Mexico,
USA
fixed a
small telescope on the region for over seven hours filtering out all but a
very specific color of
red light emitted by
hydrogen.
They then added the image to a full color frame taken over three hours.
The resulting
spectacular picture details an intricate tapestry of gaseous wisps and dust-laden filaments that were created and sculpted over eons by
stellar winds and
ancient supernovas.
The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500
light years
distant towards the
constellation of
Orion.
Two stars from the Orion's Belt
can be found in the
above image.
Explanation:
South
of the large star-forming region known as the
Orion Nebula, lies bright blue reflection nebula
NGC 1999.
The nebula is marked with a dark inverted T-shape at the
lower left in a
broad
cosmic vista that spans over 10 light-years.
The dark shape is a dense gas and dust cloud, or
Bok globule,
seen in silhouette against the bright nebula, and likely
a site of future star formation.
At the edge of the
Orion molecular
cloud complex some 1,500 light-years distant, NGC 1999's
illumination is provided by the
embedded variable star V380 Orionis.
The
region abounds with energetic young stars
producing jets and outflows that create luminous shock waves,
including HH (Herbig-Haro) 1 and 2 just below and left of NGC 1999, and
the apparent cascade
of reddish arcs and bow shocks beginning at the upper right.
The stellar jets and
outflows push through the surrounding
material at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second.
Explanation:
This esthetic close-up
of cosmic clouds and stellar winds
features LL Orionis, interacting with the
Orion Nebula flow.
Adrift in Orion's
stellar nursery
and still in its formative years,
variable star LL Orionis produces a wind more
energetic than
the wind from our own
middle-aged Sun.
As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is
formed, analogous to the
bow
wave of a boat moving through water or
a plane traveling at supersonic speed.
The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of
center is LL Ori's cosmic
bow shock, measuring about half a light-year across.
The slower gas is flowing away from the Orion Nebula's hot central star
cluster, the Trapezium, located off the upper left corner
of the picture.
In three
dimensions, LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like a
bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the "bottom" edge.
The beautiful picture is part of a
large mosaic view of
the complex
stellar nursery in Orion, filled with a myriad of
fluid
shapes associated with
star formation.
Explanation:
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like
the Orion Nebula.
Also known as
M42,
the nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away.
The Orion Nebula offers one of the best opportunities
to study how stars are born partly because it is the nearest large
star-forming region, but also because the nebula's
energetic stars have
blown away
obscuring gas and dust clouds that
would otherwise block
our view - providing an intimate look at a
range of ongoing stages
of
starbirth and evolution.
This detailed image of the
Orion Nebula is the sharpest ever, constructed using data from
the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys
and the European Southern Observatory's
La Silla 2.2 meter telescope.
The mosaic
contains a billion pixels at full resolution
and reveals about 3,000 stars.
In apparent size, the picture is as large as the Full Moon.
At the distance of M42 it spans thirteen light-years.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby
starbirth region,
is probably the most famous of all
astronomical nebulas.
Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1500
light-years away.
In the above deep image, faint wisps and sheets of
dust and gas are particularly evident.
The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the
unaided eye just below and to the left of the
easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation
Orion.
In addition to housing a bright
open cluster of stars known as the
Trapezium, the
Orion Nebula contains many
stellar nurseries.
These nurseries contain
hydrogen gas, hot young stars,
proplyds, and
stellar jets
spewing material at high speeds.
Also known as
M42, the
Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
Explanation:
When our
middle-aged Sun
was just a few
million years old it was
thousands of times brighter
in
x-rays.
In fact, it was likely similar to some of the stars found
in this false-color x-ray composite of the Orion Nebula region
from the Chandra Observatory.
The image is
centered
on bright stars of the nebula's
Trapezium star cluster, and while
analyzing the
Chandra data
astronomers have now found examples of young,
sun-like stars producing intense
x-ray flares.
It sounds dangerous, but the situation may actually
favor the formation of
hospitable
planetary systems like our own.
Energetic flares can produce turbulence in the
planet-forming disks
surrounding the stars -
preventing rocky earth-like planets from spiraling uncomfortably
close to and even
falling into
their active, young parent stars.
About 1,500 light-years away, the
Orion Nebula is the closest
large stellar nursery.
At that distance, this Chandra image spans about 10 light-years.
Explanation:
Why is the
belt of Orion surrounded by a bubble?
Although glowing like an
emission nebula,
the origin of the bubble, known as
Barnard's Loop, is currently unknown.
Progenitor hypotheses include the
winds
from bright Orion stars and the
supernovas
of stars long gone.
Barnard's Loop is too faint to be identified with the unaided eye.
The nebula
was discovered only in 1895 by
E. E. Barnard on long duration film exposures.
Orion's belt is seen as the
three bright stars across the center of the image,
the upper two noticeably blue.
Just to the right of the
lowest star in Orion's belt is a slight indentation in an
emission nebula that, when seen at
higher magnification, resolves into the
Horsehead Nebula.
To the right of the belt stars is the bright, famous, and photogenic
Orion Nebula.
Explanation:
Do you recognize the constellation Orion?
This striking but unfamiliar looking picture of the familiar Orion region of the sky was produced using survey data
from the now-defunct
InfraRed Astronomical Satellite (IRAS).
The above image
combines information recorded at three different invisible
infrared wavelengths and covers about 30x24 degrees on the sky.
Most of Orion's visually impressive stars
don't stand out, but bright
Betelgeuse
does appear as a small bright purplish dot on the lower left.
The bright region on the right contains the
Great Nebula in Orion,
while the bright region just above the image bottom is the
Rosette Nebula.
Surrounding these regions
are a jumble of chaotic glowing gas and
dark dust
jettisoned by stars forming and exploding over millions of years.
Explanation:
The Horsehead Nebula
is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky.
It is visible as the dark indentation to the red emission nebula
seen above and to the right of center in the
above photograph.
The bright star on the left is located in the
belt of the familiar constellation of Orion.
The horse-head
feature is dark because it is really an opaque
dust cloud which lies in
front of the bright red emission nebula.
Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere, this cosmic cloud has assumed a
recognizable shape by chance.
After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud
will alter its appearance.
The emission nebula's red color is caused by
electrons recombining with
protons to form
hydrogen atoms.
Also visible in the picture are blue reflection nebulae,
which preferentially
reflect the blue light from
nearby stars.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion is a colorful place.
Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small
fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion.
Long exposure, digitally sharpened images like this, however, show the
Orion Nebula to be a busy neighborhood of young stars, hot gas, and dark
dust.
The power behind much of the
Orion Nebula
(M42) is the
Trapezium -
four of the brightest stars in the nebula.
Many of the
filamentary structures visible are actually
shock waves - fronts
where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas.
The Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is
located about 1500
light years away in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion, an
immense, nearby starbirth region,
is arguably the most famous of all astronomical nebulae.
The
Orion Nebula,
also known as M42, is
shown above through
ultraviolet
and blue filters augmented with three exact colors specifically emitted by
hydrogen,
oxygen, and
sulfur.
In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the
Trapezium, the
Orion Nebula contains many
stellar nurseries.
These nurseries contain glowing gas, hot young stars,
proplyds, and
stellar jets spewing material at high speeds.
Many of the filamentary structures visible in
this image are actually
shock waves - fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas.
The Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located about 1500 light years away in the same
spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.
Explanation:
In one of the brightest parts of the
Milky Way
lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur.
NGC 3372, known as the
Great Nebula in Carina,
is home to massive stars and changing nebula.
Eta Carina,
the most energetic star in the nebula was one of the
brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s,
but then faded dramatically.
The Keyhole Nebula, visible near the center,
houses several of the most massive stars
known and has also changed its appearance.
The Carina Nebula spans over 300 light years and
lies about 7000 light-years away in the constellation of Carina.
The above image was taken from La Frontera in Alcohuaz,
Chile.
Eta Carina
might explode in a dramatic
supernova
within the next thousand years, and has even
flared in brightness over just the
past decade.
Explanation:
Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the
nearby stellar nursery known as the
Orion Nebula.
The Nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at
the edge of an immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away.
The Great Nebula in Orion can be
found with the unaided eye just below and to the left of the
easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion.
The above image from the
3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop a
dormant volcano in Hawaii brings out
Orion's detail in spectacular fashion.
Buried in the complex nebulosity are the bright stars of the
Trapezium in
Orion's heart, the sweeping lanes of
dark dust that cross the center,
the pervasive red glowing hydrogen gas,
and the
blue tinted dust
that reflects the light of newborn stars.
The whole Orion Nebula cloud complex, which includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
Explanation:
It was a clear, cold western
Kentucky night on January 23rd as
seasoned amateur astronomer Jay McNeil tried out his recently acquired 3-inch
refracting telescope by
imaging
the area around a familiar object, the
M78 reflection nebula in Orion.
Days later while processing the images, he noted a substantial
but totally unfamiliar nebulosity in the region!
With a little help from his friends,
his
amazing discovery
is now recognized as a newly visible reflection nebula surrounding a
newborn star -- McNeil's Nebula.
Pictured here at the center of
this
close-up, McNeil's Nebula with
its illuminating young star at the
tip, do not appear in images of the area before September 2003.
The emergence
of McNeil's Nebula is a rare event to witness and
astronomers are eagerly following its development, but Orion
will soon lie too close to the Sun in the sky, interrupting
further observations for several months.
The
Orion nebula complex itself is around 1,500 light-years away.
At that distance, the above image spans less than 10 light-years.
Explanation:
In the heart of monstrous
Tarantula Nebula lies one of the most unusual
star clusters.
Known as NGC 2070 or
R136,
it is home to a great number of
hot young stars.
The energetic light from these stars continually
ionizes nebula gas, while their energetic particle
wind blows
bubbles and defines intricate
filaments.
The new
Spitzer Space Telescope took the
above representative-color infrared image of this great
LMC
cluster. The image details the cluster's tumultuous center in gas,
dust and young stars.
The 30 Doradus nebula is one of the
largest star-formation regions known, and has been creating
unusually strong episodes of
star formation every few million years.
In the heart of this heart is a
central knot of stars
that is so dense
it was once thought to be a single star.
Explanation:
Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of
the night sky's
most recognizable
constellations, the glowing
Orion Nebula and the dark
Horsehead Nebula are contrasting
cosmic vistas.
They both appear in this stunning composite digital image
assembled from over 20 hours of data that includes exposures
filtered to record emission from hydrogen
atoms.
The view reveals extensive
nebulosities associated with
the giant Orion Molecular
Cloud
complex, itself hundreds of light-years across.
The magnificent emission region, the
Orion
Nebula (aka M42), lies at the
upper right of the picture.
Immediately to its left are a cluster of
of prominent bluish
reflection nebulae sometimes called
the Running Man.
The Horsehead
nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette
notched against the long red glow at the lower left.
Alnitak is the easternmost star in Orion's belt and
is seen as the brightest star to the left of the Horsehead.
Below Alnitak is the
Flame Nebula, with clouds of
bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes.
Fainter tendrils of glowing hydrogen gas are easily traced
throughout the region in
this
Orion deep field.
Explanation:
This arcing, graceful structure is actually a
bow shock about half a
light-year across, created as the wind from young star LL Orionis
collides with the
Orion Nebula flow.
Adrift in Orion's
stellar nursery
and still in its formative years,
variable star LL Orionis produces a wind more
energetic than
the wind from our own
middle-aged sun.
As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is
formed, analogous to the
bow
wave of a boat moving through water or
a plane traveling at supersonic speed.
The slower gas is flowing away from the Orion Nebula's hot central star
cluster, the
Trapezium, located off the lower right hand edge
of the picture.
In three
dimensions,
LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like a
bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the "bottom" edge.
The complex
stellar nursery in Orion shows a myriad of similar
fluid
shapes associated with
star formation, including
the bow shock surrounding a faint star at the upper right.
Part of
a mosaic
covering the
Great Nebula
in Orion, this composite color image was recorded
in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby
starbirth region,
is probably the most famous of all
astronomical nebulas.
Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1500
light-years away.
In the above deep image, faint wisps and sheets of
dust and gas are particularly evident.
The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the
unaided eye just below and to the left of the
easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation
Orion.
In addition to housing a bright
open cluster of stars known as the
Trapezium, the
Orion Nebula contains many
stellar nurseries.
These nurseries contain
hydrogen gas, hot young stars,
proplyds, and
stellar jets
spewing material at high speeds.
Also known as
M42, the
Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same
spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
Explanation:
Orion, the Hunter, is one of the most easily recognizable
constellations
in planet Earth's night sky.
But Orion's stars and
nebulae don't look
quite as colorful to the
eye as they do in
this lovely photograph, taken last month from Vekol Ranch south
of
Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
The celestial scene was recorded
in a five minute
time exposure using high-speed color print film
and a 35mm camera mounted on a small telescope.
In the picture, cool red giant
Betelgeuse
takes on a yellowish tint as the brightest star
at the upper left.
Otherwise Orion's hot blue stars are numerous, with
supergiant Rigel balancing Betelgeuse at the
lower right, Bellatrix at the upper right, and
Saiph at the lower left.
Lined up in Orion's belt (left to right) are
Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka all about 1,500 light-years away,
born of the constellation's well studied
interstellar
clouds.
And if the middle "star" of Orion's sword looks reddish and fuzzy
to you, it should.
It's the stellar nursery known as the
Great Nebula of Orion.
Explanation:
The Horsehead Nebula
is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky.
It is visible as the dark indentation to the red emission nebula
seen above and to the right of center in the
above photograph.
The bright star on the left is located in the
belt of the familiar constellation of Orion.
The
horse-head
feature is dark because it is really an opaque
dust cloud which lies in
front of the bright red emission nebula.
Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere,
this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance.
After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud
will alter its appearance.
The emission nebula's red color is caused by
electrons recombining with
protons to form
hydrogen atoms.
Also visible in the picture are blue reflection nebulae,
which preferentially
reflect the blue light from
nearby stars.
Explanation:
Revisiting one of the most
famous nebulae in
planet Earth's night sky,
astrophotographer
Robert Gendler has constructed this stunning,
color-enhanced mosaic
of the region surrounding the
Great
Nebula in Orion.
As seen here, the
clouds of Orion are dominated by the
reddish emission nebula M42
near the bottom of the image,
with blue reflection nebulae, including
NGC 1977, near the top.
Strewn with dust lanes and dark nebulae,
the striking cosmic apparitions
surrounding Orion's
stellar nurseries are about 1,500 light-years away and are
themselves several light-years across.
Located at the edge of a giant molecular
cloud complex
spanning hundreds of light-years, these nebulae represent only a small,
but very visible(!), fraction of this region's wealth of
interstellar
material.
Within these colorful clouds of Orion,
astronomers have also
identified what appear to be numerous
infant solar systems.
Explanation:
Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the night sky's
most recognizable
constellations, the glowing
Orion Nebula and the dark
Horsehead Nebula are contrasting
cosmic vistas.
They both appear in this stunning composite color photograph along with
other nebulosities as part
of the giant Orion Molecular
Cloud
complex, itself hundreds of light-years across.
The magnificent
Orion
Nebula (aka M42) lies at the
bottom of the image.
This emission nebula's
bright central regions were
captured on fast film in a relatively short 30 second exposure.
Above M42
are a cluster of prominent bluish
reflection nebulae
and fainter reddish emission nebulae recorded in additional exposures
lasting up to 40 minutes.
The Horsehead
appears as a dark nebula, a small silhouette
notched against the long red glow at the upper left.
Alnitak is the easternmost star in Orion's belt and
is seen as the brightest star above the Horsehead.
Immediately to Alnitak's left is the
Flame Nebula, with clouds of
bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes.
The telescopic
exposures were made from a site in the Southern French Alps
at an altitude of 2,800 meters (a little closer to the stars!)
in September of 2001.
Explanation:
Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the nearby
stellar nursery known as
the Orion Nebula.
The Nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away.
This
distinctively detailed image of the Orion Nebula was constructed
using data from the
2 Micron All Sky Survey or 2MASS.
Using
telescopes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of
planet Earth,
the
2MASS project has mapped the entire
sky in infrared light.
The wavelength of infrared light is longer than visible light but more
easily penetrates obscuring dust clouds.
2MASS cameras were sensitve to near infrared wavelengths
around 2 microns or about 0.00008 inches.
Visible light has a wavelength of about 0.00002 inches.
Survey
observations in three infrared bands were translated to blue,
green, and red colors to produce this composite image.
Explanation:
This arcing,
graceful structure is actually a bow shock about half a
light-year across, created as the wind from young star LL Orionis
collides with the
Orion Nebula flow.
Adrift in Orion's
stellar nursery
and still in its formative years,
variable star LL Orionis produces a wind more
energetic than
the wind from our own
middle-aged sun.
As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is
formed, analogous to the
bow
wave of a boat moving through water or
a plane traveling at supersonic speed.
The slower gas is flowing away from the Orion Nebula's hot central star
cluster, the
Trapezium, located off the lower right hand edge
of the picture.
In three
dimensions,
LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like a
bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the "bottom" edge.
The complex
stellar nursery in Orion shows a myriad of similar
fluid
shapes associated with
star formation, including
the bow shock surrounding a faint star at the upper right.
Part of
a mosaic
covering the
Great Nebula
in Orion, this composite color image was recorded
in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Explanation:
Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the
nearby stellar nursery known as the
Orion Nebula.
The Nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at
the edge of an immense interstellar
molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away.
The Great Nebula in Orion can be
found with the unaided eye just below and to the left of the
easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion.
The above image has been contrast balanced to bring out Orion's detail
in spectacular fashion.
Visible simultaneously are the bright stars of the
Trapezium in
Orion's heart, the sweeping lanes of
dark dust that cross the center,
the pervasive red glowing hydrogen gas,
and the
blue tinted dust
that reflects the light of newborn stars.
The whole Orion Nebula cloud complex, which includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
Explanation:
An eerie blue glow and ominous columns of
dark dust highlight
M78, one of the brightest
reflection nebula
on the sky.
M78 is visible with a small telescope toward
the constellation of Orion.
The
dust
not only absorbs light, but also reflects the
light of several bright blue stars that
formed recently in the nebula.
The same type of scattering that colors the
daytime sky further enhances the blue color.
M78 is about five
light-years across.
M78
appears above only as it was 1600 years ago,
however, because that is how long it takes
light to go from
there to here.
M78
belongs to the larger
Orion Molecular Cloud Complex
that contains the
Great Nebula in Orion and the
Horsehead Nebula.
Explanation:
The
Orion Nebula
is visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy patch near the famous
belt of three stars in the Orion.
The above picture captures a part of the
Orion Nebula that primarily reflects light from bright
Orion stars.
This
reflection nebula
appears blue because the blue light from the neighboring stars
scatters more efficiently from
nebula gas than does red light.
The dark lanes are composed of mostly
interstellar dust - fine needle-shaped
carbon grains.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion is a colorful place.
Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small
fuzzy patch in the
constellation of Orion.
But
this image, a representative-color composite of 81
near-infrared light images taken with
VLT's ISAAC, shows the
Orion Nebula to be a busy neighborhood of
young stars, hot gas, and dark dust.
The power behind much of the
Orion Nebula (M42) is the
Trapezium -
four of the brightest stars in the nebula.
The eerie blue glow surrounding the
bright stars pictured here is their own
starlight reflected by nearby
dust.
Dark brown
dust filaments
cover much of the region.
The whole
Orion Nebula cloud complex, which
includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
Explanation:
The
Great Nebula in Orion can be found just below
and to the left of the easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular
constellation Orion.
This fuzzy patch,
visible to the unaided eye,
contains one of the closest
stellar nurseries, lying at a distance of about 1500
light years.
The
above picture highlights red light emitted
by the nebula's hydrogen gas.
Dark
dust
filaments punctuate regions of this glowing hydrogen
gas and reflect light from the
nebula's brightest stars.
Recent observations of the
Orion Nebula by the
Hubble Space Telescope
have located
solar-system sized regions that are
thought to be planet-forming circumstellar disks.
Explanation:
The Horsehead Nebula
is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky.
It is visible as the black indentation to the red emission nebula
seen just to the right of center of the above photograph.
The bright star near the center is located in the
belt of the familiar constellation of Orion.
The
horse-head
feature is dark because it is really an opaque
dust cloud which lies in
front of the bright red emission nebula.
Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere,
this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance.
After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud
will alter its appearance.
The emission nebula's red color is caused by
electrons recombining with
protons to form
hydrogen atoms.
Also visible in the picture are blue reflection nebulae,
which preferentially
reflect the blue light from
nearby stars.
Explanation:
The Crab Nebula is a complex shell of expanding gas.
The
Crab Nebula formed from a
star that was seen to explode in a
supernova about 1000 years ago.
This two color composite image taken with the
WIYN 3.5-meter telescope shows in great
detail filamentary structure of the glowing
hydrogen gas.
Also known as
M1, the center is home to a dense
neutron star, a star as massive as our
Sun but only the size of a
city.
The
neutron star is a
pulsar that spins thirty times a second and spits out
energy that powers the nebula.
The
nebula
is named from its likeness to a
crab in an early drawing.
The
Crab Nebula still
presents mysteries today as the total mass of the
nebula and
pulsar appears much less than the mass of the original
pre-supernova star!
Explanation:
An eerie blue glow and ominous columns of
dark dust highlight M78, a bright
reflection nebula
in the constellation of Orion.
The
dust
not only absorbs light, but also reflects the
light of several bright blue stars that
formed recently in the nebula.
The same type of scattering that colors the
daytime sky further enhances the blue color.
M78
is about five
light-years across and visible through a small telescope.
M78
appears above only as it was 1600 years ago,
however, because that is how long it takes
light to go from
there to here.
M78
belongs to the larger
Orion Molecular Cloud Complex
that contains the
Great Nebula in Orion and the
Horsehead Nebula.
Explanation:
A dusty bright nebula
contrasts dramatically with a dusty dark nebula in
this Hubble Space Telescope image recorded shortly
after December's orbital
servicing mission.
The nebula, cataloged as
NGC 1999, is a
reflection nebula,
which shines by reflecting light from
a nearby star.
Unlike emission nebulae, whose
reddish glow comes from
excited atoms of gas, reflection nebulae have a
bluish cast
as their interstellar dust
grains preferentially reflect blue
starlight.
While perhaps the most famous reflection nebulae surround
the bright young stars of the Pleiades
star cluster,
NGC 1999's stellar illumination is provided by the embedded variable star
V380
Orionis, seen here just left of center.
Extending right of center, the ominous
dark nebula is actually a condensation of cold molecular
gas and dust so thick and dense that it blocks light.
From our perspective it lies in front of the bright
nebula, silhouetted against the ghostly nebular glow.
New stars will likely form within
the dark cloud, called a Bok globule,
as self-gravity continues to compress its dense gas and dust.
Reflection nebula
NGC 1999
lies about 1500 light-years away in the constellation
Orion,
just south of Orion's well known emission nebula,
M42.
Explanation:
The stars of Orion shine brightly
in northern winter skies where
the constellation
harbors the closest large stellar nursery,
the Great Nebula of Orion, a mere 1500 light-years away.
In fact, the apparently bright clump of stars near the center
of this Chandra
X-ray telescope picture of a portion of
the nebula are the massive stars of
the Trapezium - the
young star cluster which powers much of the nebula's
visible-light glow.
But the sheer number of other stars seen in
this X-ray image, which
spans about 10 light-years, has surprised and delighted astronomers
and
this picture was recently touted
as the richest field of X-ray sources ever recorded
in a single observation.
The picture does dramatically illustrate that
young stars are prodigious sources
of X-rays,
thought to be produced in hot
stellar coronas and
surface flares in a young star's strong magnetic field.
Our middle-aged Sun
itself was probably thousands of times
brighter in X-rays when, like
the Trapezium stars, it was
only a few million years old.
The dark lines through the image are instrumental artifacts.
Explanation:
The Rosette Nebula is a large
emission nebula located 3000 light-years away.
The great abundance of
hydrogen gas gives
NGC 2237 its red color in most
photographs.
The
wind from the
open cluster of stars known as
Explanation:
In the heart of monstrous
Tarantula Nebula
lies one of the most unusual star clusters.
Known as
NGC 2070 or R136,
it is home to a great number of hot young stars.
The energetic light from these stars continually ionizes nebula gas,
while their energetic particle wind blows bubbles and defines intricate filaments.
The
above representative-color picture of this great
LMC cluster details
its tumultuous center in gas,
dust and young stars.
The
30 Doradus nebula is one of the largest
star-formation regions known, and has been creating
unusually strong episodes of star formation
every few million years.
In the heart of this heart is a
central knot of stars
that is so dense it was once thought to be a single star.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion is a colorful place.
Visible to the unaided eye as a
fuzzy patch in the
constellation of Orion,
this image
taken with the
Big Throughput Camera shows the
Orion Nebula to be a busy neighborhood of
young stars, hot gas, and dark dust.
The power behind much of the
Orion Nebula (M42) is the
Trapezium -
four of the brightest stars in the nebula.
The eerie blue glow surrounding the
bright stars pictured here is their own
starlight reflected by nearby
dust.
Hot oxygen and
hydrogen gases cause the
extended green and pink glows, respectively.
Dark brown
dust filaments
cover much of the region.
The whole
Orion Nebula cloud complex, which
includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.
Explanation:
In one of the brightest parts of the
Milky Way
lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur.
NGC 3372, known as the
Great Nebula in Carina,
is home to massive stars and changing nebula.
Eta Carina,
the most energetic star in the nebula was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s,
but then faded dramatically.
The Keyhole Nebula, visible near the center,
houses several of the most massive stars
known and has also changed its appearance.
The Carina Nebula is about 7000 light-years
away in the constellation of Carina.
The
CTIO
Curtis-Schmidt Telescope in
Chile, South America took the above photograph.
Eta Carina
might explode in a dramatic
supernova
within the next thousand years, and has even
flared in brightness over just the
past two years.
Explanation:
What lights up the Flame Nebula? Fifteen hundred
light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies a nebula which,
from its glow and dark
dust lanes,
appears like a billowing fire.
But
fire,
the rapid acquisition of
oxygen, is not what makes this
Flame glow.
Rather the bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in the
Belt of Orion
visible to the nebula's right,
shines energetic light into the
Flame that knocks electrons away from the
great clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there.
Much of the glow results when the electrons and ionized hydrogen recombine. The above false-color picture of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024)
was taken in
infrared light, where a young star cluster becomes visible.
The Flame Nebula is part of the
Orion Molecular Cloud Complex,
a star-forming region that includes the famous
Horsehead Nebula.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion,
an immense, nearby starbirth region, is
probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulae.
Here, 15 pictures from the
Hubble Space Telescope have been mosaicked
to cover the inner 2.5 light years of the nebula and illustrate
its diverse nature.
In addition to housing a bright open cluster of
stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many
stellar nurseries.
These nurseries contain
hydrogen gas,
hot young stars,
proplyds, and stellar
jets spewing material at high speeds.
Most of the filamentary structures visible in this image are
actually shock waves -
fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas.
Shocks are particularly apparent near the bright stars in the
lower left of the picture.
The Orion Nebula
is about 1500 light years distant, located in the same spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
Explanation:
The most active part of the
Orion Nebular Cloud Complex
is an area known as the
Kleinmann-Low Nebula.
There, a cluster of young and forming stars
is embedded in a
molecular cloud filled with
dust.
In visible light, the dark dust blocks much of Orion KL's light, but in the
infrared light of the above photograph, the area seems literally to explode.
Hot
stellar winds flowing off massive young stars in
Orion KL region permeate and heat surrounding gas, causing
finger-like intrusions.
Near the center of Orion KL is
IRc2, a particularly active star estimated to have over
30 times the mass of
our Sun.
Radio telescopes have
recently detected unusual emission from water molecules -
maser radiation from the Kleinmann-Low Nebula.
Explanation:
The Orion Nebula (M42) shows a host of treasures when viewed in
infrared light.
Some stars in the
Trapezium, an
open cluster
of stars at the center, are only visible in infrared light.
The orange feature above center is called the Kleinman-Low Nebula,
and appears greatly affected by newly forming central star IRc2.
The blue emission in this representative color photograph
is caused by hot gas ionized by the
Trapezium stars.
This is one of the
first photographs ever taken through Japan's new
Subaru Telescope.
Explanation:
The Orion Nebula and
its surroundings present skygazers with a
wondrous jumble of newborn stars, gas, and dust.
Emission nebulae - glowing energized clouds of gas, and
reflection nebulae - dust clouds
shining by reflected starlight, abound at this
photogenic
cosmic location a mere 1,500 light-years or so away.
This telescopic image reveals an
intriguing nebulosity which seems to consist of dust clouds
illuminated not by starlight but by the light of the
Orion Nebula itself.
In non-telescopic views, the bright group of stars near the top
appear as the northernmost star in Orion's sword.
They are seen here illuminating the nearby dust clouds.
Yet the yellowish streamers of dust across the middle reflect
the light of the Orion Nebula,
which lies just off the bottom edge of the photo.
Explanation:
The Horsehead Nebula
is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible
as the black indentation to the red emission nebula
seen just to the right of center of the above photograph. The
bright star near the center is located in the belt of the familiar
constellation of Orion.
The horse-head feature is dark because it is really an opaque
dust cloud which lies in
front of the bright red emission nebula.
Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere,
this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance.
After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud
will alter its appearance. The emission nebula's
red color is caused by electrons recombining with protons to form
hydrogen atoms. Also
visible in the picture are blue reflection nebulae,
which preferentially
reflect the blue light from nearby stars.
Explanation:
Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the nearby
stellar nursery known as
the Orion Nebula.
The Nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an
immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away.
This distinctively detailed image of the Orion Nebula was constructed
using data from the
2 Micron All Sky Survey or 2MASS.
Now underway with
telescopes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of
planet Earth,
the 2MASS project will map the entire
sky in infrared light.
The wavelength of infrared light is longer than visible light but more
easily penetrates obscuring dust clouds.
2MASS cameras are sensitve to near infrared wavelengths
around 2 microns or about 0.00008 inches.
Visible light has a wavelength of about 0.00002 inches.
Survey observations in three infrared bands were translated to blue,
green, and red colors to produce this composite image.
Explanation:
Is Orion all wet?
Recent observations have confirmed
that water molecules now exist in the famous
Orion Nebula,
and are still forming.
The
Orion Nebula (M42, shown above) is known to be composed mostly of
hydrogen gas, with
all other atoms and molecules being comparatively
rare. The nebula is so
vast, though, that even the measured
minuscule production rate creates enough water to fill
Earth's oceans 60 times over every day,
speculate discoverers led by M. Harwit
(Cornell).
The water that composes
comets, the oceans of Earth, and even humans may have been created in a cloud like the Orion Nebula.
Explanation:
The
Orion Nebula
is visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy patch near the famous
belt of three stars in the
constellation
Orion. The
above picture captures a part of the
Orion Nebula that primarily reflects light from bright Orion stars. This
reflection nebula appears blue
because the blue light from the neighboring stars scatters more
efficiently from nebula gas than does red light.
The dark lanes are composed of mostly
interstellar dust - fine needle-shaped
carbon grains.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion can be found just below and to
the left of the easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion.
This fuzzy patch contains one of the closest stellar nurseries,
lying at a distance of about 1500 light years.
In the above picture, the red region on the left consists of nebulae designated
M42 and M43 and contains the bright
Trapezium
open cluster.
The blue region on the right is a nebula
primarily
reflecting
the light from internal bright stars.
Recent observations of the
Orion Nebula by the
Hubble Space Telescope
have located solar-system sized
star-forming regions.
Explanation:
Orion is big. Some of the stars that form the constellation of Orion are part of a giant gas cloud
complex that stretches over 100 light years and
appears more than 50 times the diameter of the Moon.
Components of this cloud include the
Horsehead Nebula, the
Orion Nebula, the
Trapezium
open cluster, and
small disks
containing stellar systems which are just forming.
At 1500 light years,
Orion is the closest star forming region to Earth.
Close inspection of the photo's center should reveal the
three stars which form the
belt of Orion.
Explanation:
The Horsehead Nebula
is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible
as the black indentation to the red emission nebula
seen just to the right of center of the above photograph. The
bright star near the center is located in the belt of the familiar
constellation of Orion.
The horse-head feature is dark because it is really an opaque
dust cloud which lies in
front of the bright red emission nebula.
Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere,
this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance.
After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud
will alter its appearance. The emission nebula's
red color is caused by electrons recombining with protons to form
hydrogen atoms. Also
visible in the picture are blue reflection nebulae,
which preferentially
reflect the blue light from nearby stars.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion,
an immense, nearby starbirth region, is
probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulae.
Here, 15 pictures from the
Hubble Space Telescope have been mosaicked
to cover the inner 2.5 light years of the nebula and illustrate
its diverse nature.
In addition to housing a bright open cluster of
stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many
stellar nurseries.
These nurseries contain
hydrogen gas,
hot young stars,
proplyds, and stellar
jets spewing material at high speeds.
Most of the filamentary structures visible in this image are
actually shock waves -
fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas.
Shocks are particularly apparent near the bright stars in the
lower left of the picture.
The Orion Nebula
is about 1500 light years distant, located in the same spiral arm of
our Galaxy as the
Sun.
Explanation: How do planets form? Astronomers are finding
out by studying one of the most interesting of all astronomical
nebulae known, the Great Nebula in Orion.
Insets to above mosaic
show several planetary systems in
formation. The bottom left insert shows the relative size of
our own Solar System. The Orion Nebula
contains many stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain hydrogen
gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and
stellar jets spewing material at
high speeds. Much of the filamentary structure visible in this
image are actually shock waves
- fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas.
Some shock waves are visible near one of the bright stars in the
lower left of the picture. The Orion Nebula
is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy
as is our Sun.
Explanation: The Horsehead Nebula
is arguably the most famous nebula on the sky. It is visible
as the black indentation to the red emission nebula
seen just to the right of center of the above photograph. The
bright star near the center is located in the belt of the familiar
constellation of Orion.
The horse-head feature is dark because it is really an opaque
dust cloud which lies in
front of the bright red emission nebula.
Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere,
this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance.
After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud
will alter its appearance. The emission nebula's
red color is caused by electrons recombining with protons to form
hydrogen atoms. Also
visible in the picture are blue reflection nebulae,
which preferentially reflect the blue light from nearby stars.
Explanation:
The
Orion
Nebula is visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy patch near the
famous belt of three stars in the
constellation Orion. The above picture
captures a part of the
Orion Nebula that primarily reflects light from
bright Orion stars. This
reflection nebula
appears blue because the blue light from the neighboring stars scatters
more efficiently from nebula gas than does red light. The dark lanes are
composed of mostly
interstellar dust
- fine needle-shaped carbon grains.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in
Orion is one of the most interesting of all astronomical nebulae known.
Here fifteen
pictures from the
Hubble Space Telescope have been merged to show
the great expanse and diverse nature of the nebula. In addition to housing
a bright
open cluster of stars known as the
Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many
stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain
hydrogen gas,
hot young stars,
proplyds, and stellar
jets spewing material at high speeds. Much of
the filamentary structure visible in this image are actually shock waves -
fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas. Some shock
waves are visible near one of the bright stars in the lower left of the
picture. The
Orion Nebula is located in the same spiral arm of
our Galaxy as is our
Sun. It takes light about 1500 years to
reach us from there.
Explanation:
The black indentation to the red
emission nebula
seen just to the right of
center of the above photograph is one of the most famous features in any
nebulae on the sky. Because of its shape, it is known as the
Horsehead
Nebula. The bright star near the center is
located in the belt of the familiar constellation of Orion.
The horse head feature is dark because it is really a dense
dust cloud which lies
in front of the bright nebula and blocks the light.
Like clouds in our sky, this cosmic cloud has chanced to assume
a recognizable shape. After thousands of years, the
internal motions of the cloud will alter its appearance.
The emission nebula's
red color is caused by electrons recombining with protons to form
hydrogen atoms.
Also visible in the picture are blue
reflection nebulae.
This type of nebula contains dust which
preferentially reflects the blue light of nearby stars.
Explanation:
The Great Nebula in Orion, M42, can be found on the night sky just below and
to the left of the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular
constellation Orion. This nebula is one of the closest stellar nurseries -
where young stars are being formed even now.
Clumps of gas (mostly hydrogen and helium) and dust in the nebula
are squeezed together by their own gravity until they collapse and
form stars.
Some stars we can see here partially obscured by the nebula,
are only about 100,000 years
old - just babies compared to the 5 billion (5,000,000,000) years of
our Sun.
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