Messier 42 and 43 (remote, NM)
The Great Orion Nebula, number 42 in the Messier catalogue - this is centred on nearby M43, deQuervain's nebula - the bright pink circle.
Four young, massive and intensely luminous O class stars (in the bright white zone) pump out enough UV and soft X-ray light to illuminate this whole region of space and make hydrogen clouds fluoresce pink at 656.4nm.
Those stars will burn rapidly through their hydrogen fuel and then probably go supernova in just a few million years - burn bright and die young!
Cold gas forms dark clouds, folds and shadows. New stars will form where the cold gas collapses under gravity.
15 x 6 minute exposures on a 150mm refractor in New Mexico.
Messier 42 and 43 (remote, NM)
The Great Orion Nebula, number 42 in the Messier catalogue - this is centred on nearby M43, deQuervain's nebula - the bright pink circle.
Four young, massive and intensely luminous O class stars (in the bright white zone) pump out enough UV and soft X-ray light to illuminate this whole region of space and make hydrogen clouds fluoresce pink at 656.4nm.
Those stars will burn rapidly through their hydrogen fuel and then probably go supernova in just a few million years - burn bright and die young!
Cold gas forms dark clouds, folds and shadows. New stars will form where the cold gas collapses under gravity.
15 x 6 minute exposures on a 150mm refractor in New Mexico.