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The Messier Catalog, sometimes known as the Messier Album or list of Messier objects, is one of the most useful tools in the astronomy hobby. In the middle of the 18th century, the return of Halley's comet helped to prove the Newtonian theory, and helped to spark a new interest in astronomy. During this time, a French astronomer named Charles Messier began a life-long search for comets. He would eventually discover 15 of them. On August 28, 1758, while searching for comets, Messier found a small cloudy object in the constellation Taurus. He began keeping a journal of these nebulous (cloudy) objects so that they would not be confused with comets. This journal is known today as the Messier Catalog, or Messier Album. The deep sky objects in this catalog are commonly referred to as Messier objects.
This new view of the Orion nebula highlights fledging stars hidden in the gas and clouds. It shows infrared observations taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel mission, in which NASA plays an important role.
A star forms as a clump of this gas and dust collapses, creating a warm glob of material fed by an encircling disk. These dusty envelopes glow brightest at longer wavelengths, appearing as red dots in this image. In several hundred thousand years, some of the forming stars will accrete enough material to trigger nuclear fusion at their cores and then blaze into stardom.
The nebula is found below the three belt stars in the famous constellation of Orion the Hunter, which appears at night in northern latitudes during fall and then throughout winter. At a distance of around 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the nebula cannot quite be seen with the naked eye. Binoculars or a small telescope, however, are all it takes to get a good look in visible light at this stellar factory.
Spitzer is designed to see shorter infrared wavelengths than Herschel. By combining their observations, astronomers get a more complete picture of star formation. The colors in this image relate to the different wavelengths of light, and to the temperature of material, mostly dust, in this region of Orion. Data from Spitzer show warmer objects in blue, with progressively cooler dust appearing green and red in the Herschel datasets. The more evolved, hotter embryonic stars thus appear in blue.
The combined data traces the interplay of the bright, young stars with the cold and dusty surrounding clouds. A red garland of cool gas also notably runs through the Trapezium, the intensely bright region that is home to four humungous blue-white stars, and up into the rich star field.
Infrared data at wavelengths of 8.0 and 24 microns from Spitzer are rendered in blue. Herschel data with wavelengths of 70 and 160 microns are represented in green and red, respectively.
LRGB composite, multiple exposure durations, total approx. 4 hrs over two nights. From left The Running Man nebula (NGC1977) and the Great Orion Nebula (M42/M43).
The stars are significantly saturated in color channels leading colored bands around them (could try star reduction to eliminate the problem). I'm not completely satisfied with the quality of the TSQuad65 used to take this. I can't get it to focus into pinpoint stars.
The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion.
La nebulosa de Orión, también conocida como Messier 42, M42, o NGC 1976, es una nebulosa difusa situada al sur del Cinturón de Orión. Es una de las nebulosas más brillantes que existen, y puede ser observada a simple vista sobre el cielo nocturno. Wikipedia
Distancia a la Tierra: 1.344 años luz
Edad: 3 millones de años
Magnitud: 4
Descubridor: Christiaan Huygens
Coordenadas: Ascensión recta 83,822°, Declinación 5,391°
It's that time of year when the temperature and the leaves drop and the sun sets earlier giving rise to long, dark cool nights. It is around this time the mighty constellation of Orion the Hunter strides up into the early night sky, bringing with it all the astronomical activity of that region of sky. The most famous of which are the Great Orion Nebula (M42) in the middle of Orion's sword, and the Horsehead Nebula near the left end of Orion's Belt.
This picture is of the Great Orion Nebula, M42. The nebula is only 1,500 light-years away, making it the closest, large, star-forming region to Earth and giving it such a bright appearance that it looks like a star to the naked eye.
I have taken pictures of this before and no doubt will again.
~~~~~~~
Picture taken using:
Seestar S50 with LP filter
229 Lights at 10 seconds
Bortle 4 sky.
Integrated and processed in PixInsight.
Captions added in Photoshop CS4
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image by way of the European Southern Observatory of the Orion Nebula. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: The Great Nebula in Orion is featured in this sweeping image from NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The Orion Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion Nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.
The metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full Moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion Nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.
Astronomers now realize that the Orion Nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame Nebula. This complex in our Milky Way Galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.
Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths and cyan (blue-green) represents 4.6 microns, both of which come mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12-micron light and red represents 22-micron light.
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope image of stars in the gas clouds of the Orion Nebula. Slightly lurid color/processing variant.
Original caption: This new view of the Orion nebula highlights fledgling stars hidden in the gas and clouds. It shows infrared observations taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel mission, in which NASA plays an important role.
A star forms as a clump of this gas and dust collapses, creating a warm glob of material fed by an encircling disk. These dusty envelopes glow brightest at longer wavelengths, appearing as red dots in this image. In several hundred thousand years, some of the forming stars will accrete enough material to trigger nuclear fusion at their cores and then blaze into stardom.
The nebula is found below the three belt stars in the famous constellation of Orion the Hunter, which appears at night in northern latitudes during fall and then throughout winter. At a distance of around 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the nebula cannot quite be seen with the naked eye. Binoculars or a small telescope, however, are all it takes to get a good look in visible light at this stellar factory.
Spitzer is designed to see shorter infrared wavelengths than Herschel. By combining their observations, astronomers get a more complete picture of star formation. The colors in this image relate to the different wavelengths of light, and to the temperature of material, mostly dust, in this region of Orion. Data from Spitzer show warmer objects in blue, with progressively cooler dust appearing green and red in the Herschel datasets. The more evolved, hotter embryonic stars thus appear in blue.
The combined data traces the interplay of the bright, young stars with the cold and dusty surrounding clouds. A red garland of cool gas also notably runs through the Trapezium, the intensely bright region that is home to four humungous blue-white stars, and up into the rich star field.
Infrared data at wavelengths of 8.0 and 24 microns from Spitzer are rendered in blue. Herschel data with wavelengths of 70 and 160 microns are represented in green and red, re
Nikon D7100
Focal Length: 300mm
2015/01/22 00:06:34.9
Optimize Image: Vivid
Color Mode: aRGB
Long Exposure NR: Off
High ISO NR: On (Low)
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Tone Comp.: None
RAW (14-bit)
Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern
AF Mode: Manual
Sharpening: Normal
2.50 sec - F/4
Latitude: S 33°37.01'(33°37'0.6")
Longitude: W 69°58.17'(69°58'10")
Azimuth: 315º (NW)
Altitude: 2697.00 m
Lens: 100-300mm F/4D Sigma
Sensitivity: ISO 6400
Image Comment: (c) Gerard Prins (+56) 22758 7209
Orion Nebula (M42/NGC 1976) and Running Man Nebula (Sh2-279)
I extracted the starless Red channel from the L-eXtreme integration and combined with the RGB image from the UV-IR Blocking filter to enhance the reds.
The RGB image is with the Astronomik L2 UV-IR Blocking Filter under Bortle 4 skies of Joshua Tree National Park. I arrived late at 10 PM, so I only kept 10 subs at 180 secs before the background became too bright due to the light pollution near the horizon.
The extracted red Ha channel is with the Optolong L-eXtreme Filter under Bortle 8 skies at home.
I attempted an HDR composite by imaging at 10, 30, and 180 seconds to retain the detail and color near the Orion Trapezium Cluster and pull out the faint nebulosity.
Total Time:
L-eXtreme – Montclair, CA
39 x 10 sec = 6 min 30 sec
40 x 30 sec = 20 min
97 x 180 sec = 4 hrs 51 min
Integration Time: 5 hrs 17 min 30 sec
UV-IR Blocking – Joshua Tree National Park, CA
20 x 10 sec = 3 min 20 sec
20 x 30 sec = 10 min
10 x 180 sec = 30 min
Integration Time: 43 min 20 sec
-------------------------------------------------------
Location: Montclair, California, USA (Bortle 8); Cholla Cactus Garden, Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA (Bortle 4)
Date: January 1-5, 2022; January 28, 2022
Moon: New Moon; Waning Crescent (12%)
Camera: ZWO ASI6200MC Pro
Telescope: William Optics ZenithStar 61II APO f/5.9
Flattener/Reducer: William Optics FLAT61A Field Flattener
Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme 2”; #astronomikfilters L2 UV-IR Blocking 2”
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120MM Mini
Guide Scope: William Optics UniGuide 32 f/3.75
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Pro
Battery: Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 300
Camera Settings: Gain 100 | f/5.9 | 10 sec, 30 sec, 180 sec
Software: PixInsight, Topaz Labs Denoise AI, Adobe Lightroom Classic
-------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2022 Steven K. Wu Photography. All Rights Reserved.
EOS 500Da + EF 5,6/400mm L on Avalon Linear, guided with MGEN
Filter: IDAS LPS P2 mounted inside camera
21 * 30s + 21 * 480s at f5,6/ISO 800
The Messier Catalog, sometimes known as the Messier Album or list of Messier objects, is one of the most useful tools in the astronomy hobby. In the middle of the 18th century, the return of Halley's comet helped to prove the Newtonian theory, and helped to spark a new interest in astronomy. During this time, a French astronomer named Charles Messier began a life-long search for comets. He would eventually discover 15 of them. On August 28, 1758, while searching for comets, Messier found a small cloudy object in the constellation Taurus. He began keeping a journal of these nebulous (cloudy) objects so that they would not be confused with comets. This journal is known today as the Messier Catalog, or Messier Album. The deep sky objects in this catalog are commonly referred to as Messier objects.
The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as NGC) is a catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888 as a new version of John Herschel's General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects. It is one of the largest comprehensive catalogues, as it includes all types of deep space objects and is not confined to, for example, galaxies. Dreyer also published two supplements to the NGC in 1895 and 1908, known as the Index Catalogues, describing a further 5,386 astronomical objects.
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows what lies near the sword of the constellation Orion -- an active stellar nursery containing thousands of young stars and developing protostars. Many will turn out like our sun. Some are even more massive. These massive stars light up the Orion nebula, which is seen here as the bright region near the center of the image.
To the north of the Orion nebula is a dark filamentary cloud of cold dust and gas, over 5 light-years in length, containing ruby red protostars that jewel the hilt of Orion's sword. These are the newest generation of stars in this stellar nursery, and include the protostar HOPS 68, where Spitzer spotted tiny green crystals in a surrounding cloud of gas.
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope image of the central part of the Orion Nebula. Image released as part of a retrospective of the Spitzer Space Telescope, which will be deactivated early in 2020. Inverted grayscale variant (looking like a bird in flight).
Original caption: NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes have teamed up to expose the chaos that baby stars are creating 1,500 light-years away in a cosmic cloud called the Orion Nebula.
This striking infrared and visible-light composite indicates that four monstrously massive stars at the center of the cloud may be the main culprits in the familiar Orion constellation. The stars are collectively called the "Trapezium." Their community can be identified as the yellow smudge near the center of the image.
Swirls of green in Hubble's ultraviolet and visible-light view reveal hydrogen and sulfur gas that have been heated and ionized by intense ultraviolet radiation from the Trapezium's stars. Meanwhile, Spitzer's infrared view exposes carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the cloud. These organic molecules have been illuminated by the Trapezium's stars, and are shown in the composite as wisps of red and orange. On Earth, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found on burnt toast and in automobile exhaust.
Together, the telescopes expose the stars in Orion as a rainbow of dots sprinkled throughout the image. Orange-yellow dots revealed by Spitzer are actually infant stars deeply embedded in a cocoon of dust and gas. Hubble showed less embedded stars as specks of green, and foreground stars as blue spots.
Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout the cloud etched all of the well-defined ridges and cavities in Orion. The large cavity near the right of the image was most likely carved by winds from the Trapezium's stars.
Located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion, or the "Hunter" constellation. The cosmic cloud is also our closest massive star-formation factory, and astronomers believe it contains more than 1,000 young stars.
The Orion constellation is a familiar sight in the fall and winter night sky in the northern hemisphere. The nebula is in
Edited Vista image from the European Southern Observatory of the Orion Nebula. Color/processing variant.
The Great Nebula in Orion is featured in this sweeping image from NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The Orion Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion Nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.
The metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full Moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion Nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.
Astronomers now realize that the Orion Nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame Nebula. This complex in our Milky Way Galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.
Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths and cyan (blue-green) represents 4.6 microns, both of which come mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12-micron light and red represents 22-micron light.
M42 Nébuleuse d'Orion
Newton 200/1000 et Nikon D7500 non défiltré
Monture Eq6 r pro sans autoguidage
2h d'exposition Iso 800 et 30" par prise avec DOFs
Traitement SIRIL et PS
This Hubble Space Telescope picture shows a hypersonic shock wave (lower right) of material moving at 148,000 miles per hour in the Orion Nebula, a star-forming region 1,500 light-years away.
Studies of similar objects infer that such highly supersonic shock waves are formed by a beam of material coming out of newly formed stars. The plume is only 1,500 years old. The image is 112 light-year across.
This color photograph is a composite of separate images taken at the wavelengths of the two abundant elements in the nebula: Hydrogen and Oxygen.
Credit: C.R. O'Dell (Rice University), and NASA
For more information, visit: science.nasa.gov/asset/hubble/gas-plume-from-a-newborn-st...
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope image of the heart of the Orion Nebula. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes have teamed up to expose the chaos that baby stars are creating 1,500 light-years away in a cosmic cloud called the Orion Nebula.
This striking infrared and visible-light composite indicates that four monstrously massive stars at the center of the cloud may be the main culprits in the familiar Orion constellation. The stars are collectively called the "Trapezium." Their community can be identified as the yellow smudge near the center of the image.
Swirls of green in Hubble's ultraviolet and visible-light view reveal hydrogen and sulfur gas that have been heated and ionized by intense ultraviolet radiation from the Trapezium's stars. Meanwhile, Spitzer's infrared view exposes carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the cloud. These organic molecules have been illuminated by the Trapezium's stars, and are shown in the composite as wisps of red and orange. On Earth, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found on burnt toast and in automobile exhaust.
Together, the telescopes expose the stars in Orion as a rainbow of dots sprinkled throughout the image. Orange-yellow dots revealed by Spitzer are actually infant stars deeply embedded in a cocoon of dust and gas. Hubble showed less embedded stars as specks of green, and foreground stars as blue spots.
Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout the cloud etched all of the well-defined ridges and cavities in Orion. The large cavity near the right of the image was most likely carved by winds from the Trapezium's stars.
Located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion, or the "Hunter" constellation. The cosmic cloud is also our closest massive star-formation factory, and astronomers believe it contains more than 1,000 young stars.
The Orion constellation is a familiar sight in the fall and winter night sky in the northern hemisphere. The nebula is invisible to the unaided eye, but can be resolved with binoculars or small telescopes.
This composite image displays light detected at wavelengths of 0.43, 0.50, and 0.53 microns in blue. Light at wavelengths of 0.6, 0.65, and 0.91 microns is green. Light at 3.6 microns is orange, and 8.0 microns is red.
Captured with Nikon D810A set to 400ISO and Nikon 600mm F4 fully open, on ZWO AM5 mount. + autoguiding.
Stack of 38x 15" subs used as "luminance" to boost details on 40x 45" subs processed as LRGB, and R/hydrogen-alpha channel extracted.
My first attempt at photographing a nebula. This is the famous Orion nebula, otherwise known as M42 (Messier 42). This was a two minute exposure at ISO800 using a Canon 350D looking through my 110mm refractor telescope. I used a narrow band filter (Orion Ultrablock) to reduce the incredibly awful light pollution in my area. This is why the image has a distinctly blue tint.
This is my proudest accomplishment thus far. Photographed using my Meade LX3/2080, with the Celestron f6.3 focal reducer and a Nikon T-mount adapter for my Nikon D5100. Combined total of 5 minutes' worth of exposure time.
Initial stack process in Deep Sky Stacker, followed by post processing in Adobe Photoshop with a three-image variation processed in Photomatix.
taken at McDermott Court at MIT.
Camera settings: 70-300mm lens @ 300mm, F/5.6, 2 sec. per frame, 144 frames, ISO 1250. Stacked with dark, flat, and offset frames subtracted.
Here is my attemped at the Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula was taken on Oct 17th, 2012 using a Canon T2i attached to a 4.7 Inch, f/8.3 Orion Refractor.
A NASA Hubble Space Telescope "true color" mosaic image of a small portion of the Orion Nebula, taken the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (in wide field mode). Hubble shows a wealth of detail never seen before in the nebula. New features include: elongated objects oriented on the brightest stars in this region (which are located just off the edge of the picture); rapidly expanding plumes of material around young stars; and proto-planetary disks. This color photograph is a composite of separate images taken at the wavelengths of three abundant elements in the nebula: Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. The images were taken August 13 and 14, 1991. The image is 1.29 light-years across.
La nebulosa de Orión, también conocida como M42, o NGC 1976, es una nebulosa difusa situada al sur del Cinturón de Orión. Es una de las nebulosas más brillantes que existen, y puede ser observada a simple vista sobre el cielo nocturno. Está situada a 1.270±76 años luz de la Tierra, y posee un diámetro aproximado de 24 años luz.
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope image of the central part of the Orion Nebula. Image released as part of a retrospective of the Spitzer Space Telescope, which will be deactivated early in 2020. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes have teamed up to expose the chaos that baby stars are creating 1,500 light-years away in a cosmic cloud called the Orion Nebula.
This striking infrared and visible-light composite indicates that four monstrously massive stars at the center of the cloud may be the main culprits in the familiar Orion constellation. The stars are collectively called the "Trapezium." Their community can be identified as the yellow smudge near the center of the image.
Swirls of green in Hubble's ultraviolet and visible-light view reveal hydrogen and sulfur gas that have been heated and ionized by intense ultraviolet radiation from the Trapezium's stars. Meanwhile, Spitzer's infrared view exposes carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the cloud. These organic molecules have been illuminated by the Trapezium's stars, and are shown in the composite as wisps of red and orange. On Earth, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found on burnt toast and in automobile exhaust.
Together, the telescopes expose the stars in Orion as a rainbow of dots sprinkled throughout the image. Orange-yellow dots revealed by Spitzer are actually infant stars deeply embedded in a cocoon of dust and gas. Hubble showed less embedded stars as specks of green, and foreground stars as blue spots.
Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout the cloud etched all of the well-defined ridges and cavities in Orion. The large cavity near the right of the image was most likely carved by winds from the Trapezium's stars.
Located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion, or the "Hunter" constellation. The cosmic cloud is also our closest massive star-formation factory, and astronomers believe it contains more than 1,000 young stars.
The Orion constellation is a familiar sight in the fall and winter night sky in the northern hemisphere. The nebula is in
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image by way of the European Southern Observatory of the Orion Nebula. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: The Great Nebula in Orion is featured in this sweeping image from NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The Orion Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion Nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.
The metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full Moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion Nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.
Astronomers now realize that the Orion Nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame Nebula. This complex in our Milky Way Galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.
Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths and cyan (blue-green) represents 4.6 microns, both of which come mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12-micron light and red represents 22-micron light.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image by way of the European Southern Observatory of the Orion Nebula. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: The Great Nebula in Orion is featured in this sweeping image from NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The Orion Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion Nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.
The metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full Moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion Nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.
Astronomers now realize that the Orion Nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame Nebula. This complex in our Milky Way Galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.
Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths and cyan (blue-green) represents 4.6 microns, both of which come mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12-micron light and red represents 22-micron light.
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope image of the heart of the Orion Nebula. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes have teamed up to expose the chaos that baby stars are creating 1,500 light-years away in a cosmic cloud called the Orion Nebula.
This striking infrared and visible-light composite indicates that four monstrously massive stars at the center of the cloud may be the main culprits in the familiar Orion constellation. The stars are collectively called the "Trapezium." Their community can be identified as the yellow smudge near the center of the image.
Swirls of green in Hubble's ultraviolet and visible-light view reveal hydrogen and sulfur gas that have been heated and ionized by intense ultraviolet radiation from the Trapezium's stars. Meanwhile, Spitzer's infrared view exposes carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the cloud. These organic molecules have been illuminated by the Trapezium's stars, and are shown in the composite as wisps of red and orange. On Earth, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found on burnt toast and in automobile exhaust.
Together, the telescopes expose the stars in Orion as a rainbow of dots sprinkled throughout the image. Orange-yellow dots revealed by Spitzer are actually infant stars deeply embedded in a cocoon of dust and gas. Hubble showed less embedded stars as specks of green, and foreground stars as blue spots.
Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout the cloud etched all of the well-defined ridges and cavities in Orion. The large cavity near the right of the image was most likely carved by winds from the Trapezium's stars.
Located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion, or the "Hunter" constellation. The cosmic cloud is also our closest massive star-formation factory, and astronomers believe it contains more than 1,000 young stars.
The Orion constellation is a familiar sight in the fall and winter night sky in the northern hemisphere. The nebula is invisible to the unaided eye, but can be resolved with binoculars or small telescopes.
This composite image displays light detected at wavelengths of 0.43, 0.50, and 0.53 microns in blue. Light at wavelengths of 0.6, 0.65, and 0.91 microns is green. Light at 3.6 microns is orange, and 8.0 microns is red.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image by way of the European Southern Observatory of the Orion Nebula. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: The Great Nebula in Orion is featured in this sweeping image from NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The Orion Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion Nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.
The metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full Moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion Nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.
Astronomers now realize that the Orion Nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame Nebula. This complex in our Milky Way Galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.
Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths and cyan (blue-green) represents 4.6 microns, both of which come mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12-micron light and red represents 22-micron light.
Campo amplio en Orion. Apilado de 196x32 segs (1h 44 min) f:135mm @ F/5.6, ISO 1600. Canon 1000D + Sigma 55-200mm. 26-12-2011
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image by way of the European Southern Observatory of the Orion Nebula. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: The Great Nebula in Orion is featured in this sweeping image from NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The Orion Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion Nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.
The metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full Moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion Nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.
Astronomers now realize that the Orion Nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame Nebula. This complex in our Milky Way Galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.
Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths and cyan (blue-green) represents 4.6 microns, both of which come mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12-micron light and red represents 22-micron light.
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope image of part of Orion. The original shape is from Spitzer.
Original caption: This image composite shows a part of the Orion constellation surveyed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The region that makes up the shaft part of the "hockey stick" stretches 70 light-years beyond the Orion nebula. This particular area does not contain massive young stars like those of the Orion nebula, but is filled with 800 stars about the same mass as the sun.
Since infrared light can penetrate through dust, we see not only stars within the cloud, but thousands of stars many light-years behind it, which just happen to be in the picture like unwanted bystanders. Astronomers carefully separate the young stars in the Orion cloud complex from the bystanders by looking for their telltale infrared glow.
The infrared image shows light captured by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Light with wavelengths of 8 and 5.8 microns (red and orange) comes mainly from dust that has been heated by starlight. Light of 4.5 microns (green) shows hot gas and dust; and light of 3.6 microns (blue) is from starlight.
The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. Wikipedia
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image by way of the European Southern Observatory of the Orion Nebula. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: The Great Nebula in Orion is featured in this sweeping image from NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The Orion Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion Nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.
The metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full Moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion Nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.
Astronomers now realize that the Orion Nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame Nebula. This complex in our Milky Way Galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.
Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths and cyan (blue-green) represents 4.6 microns, both of which come mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12-micron light and red represents 22-micron light.
Photo by: Callery
📍 Sai Kung, Hong Kong
Date: 2021. 12. 04
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Edited Vista image from the European Southern Observatory of the Orion Nebula.
Original caption: The Great Nebula in Orion is featured in this sweeping image from NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation of Orion is prominent in the evening sky throughout the world from about December through April of each year. The Orion Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 42) is located in the sword of Orion, hanging from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula is visible to the unaided human eye as a single star, with some fuzziness apparent to the most keen-eyed observers. Because of its prominence, cultures all around the world have given special significance to Orion. The Maya of Mesoamerica envision the lower portion of Orion, his belt and feet (the stars Saiph and Rigel), as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth that is at the center of all traditional Maya homes. The Orion Nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, is interpreted by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke.
The metaphor of a cosmic fire of creation is apt. The Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged. It is one of the closest sites of star formation to Earth and therefore provides astronomers with the best view of stellar birth in action. Many other telescopes have been used to study the nebula in detail, finding wonders such as planet-forming disks around newly forming stars. WISE was an all-sky survey giving it the ability to see these sites of star formation in a larger context. This view spans more than six times the width of the full Moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. In it, we see the Orion Nebula surrounded by large amounts of interstellar dust, colored green.
Astronomers now realize that the Orion Nebula is part of the larger Orion molecular cloud complex, which also includes the Flame Nebula. This complex in our Milky Way Galaxy is actively making new stars. It is filled with dust warmed by the light of the new stars within, making the dust glow in infrared light.
Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths and cyan (blue-green) represents 4.6 microns, both of which come mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12-micron light and red represents 22-micron light.
Lately I've been trying to get a good picture of the Orion Nebula, Messier # 42. And I am surprising myself with being able to do so, with my camera and usual zoom lens, and with no tripod. This was an hour ago from my back yard.
It is tempting to go looking for a telescope, but I'm enjoying this rather more low-tech way of seeing things in the sky.
Image of a nebula taken using a NASA telescope -
Original from NASA. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope image of the central part of the Orion Nebula. Image released as part of a retrospective of the Spitzer Space Telescope, which will be deactivated early in 2020. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes have teamed up to expose the chaos that baby stars are creating 1,500 light-years away in a cosmic cloud called the Orion Nebula.
This striking infrared and visible-light composite indicates that four monstrously massive stars at the center of the cloud may be the main culprits in the familiar Orion constellation. The stars are collectively called the "Trapezium." Their community can be identified as the yellow smudge near the center of the image.
Swirls of green in Hubble's ultraviolet and visible-light view reveal hydrogen and sulfur gas that have been heated and ionized by intense ultraviolet radiation from the Trapezium's stars. Meanwhile, Spitzer's infrared view exposes carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the cloud. These organic molecules have been illuminated by the Trapezium's stars, and are shown in the composite as wisps of red and orange. On Earth, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found on burnt toast and in automobile exhaust.
Together, the telescopes expose the stars in Orion as a rainbow of dots sprinkled throughout the image. Orange-yellow dots revealed by Spitzer are actually infant stars deeply embedded in a cocoon of dust and gas. Hubble showed less embedded stars as specks of green, and foreground stars as blue spots.
Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout the cloud etched all of the well-defined ridges and cavities in Orion. The large cavity near the right of the image was most likely carved by winds from the Trapezium's stars.
Located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion, or the "Hunter" constellation. The cosmic cloud is also our closest massive star-formation factory, and astronomers believe it contains more than 1,000 young stars.
The Orion constellation is a familiar sight in the fall and winter night sky in the northern hemisphere. The nebula is in
This new view of the Orion nebula highlights fledging stars hidden in the gas and clouds. It shows infrared observations taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel mission, in which NASA plays an important role.
A star forms as a clump of this gas and dust collapses, creating a warm glob of material fed by an encircling disk. These dusty envelopes glow brightest at longer wavelengths, appearing as red dots in this image. In several hundred thousand years, some of the forming stars will accrete enough material to trigger nuclear fusion at their cores and then blaze into stardom.
The nebula is found below the three belt stars in the famous constellation of Orion the Hunter, which appears at night in northern latitudes during fall and then throughout winter. At a distance of around 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the nebula cannot quite be seen with the naked eye. Binoculars or a small telescope, however, are all it takes to get a good look in visible light at this stellar factory.
Spitzer is designed to see shorter infrared wavelengths than Herschel. By combining their observations, astronomers get a more complete picture of star formation. The colors in this image relate to the different wavelengths of light, and to the temperature of material, mostly dust, in this region of Orion. Data from Spitzer show warmer objects in blue, with progressively cooler dust appearing green and red in the Herschel datasets. The more evolved, hotter embryonic stars thus appear in blue.
The combined data traces the interplay of the bright, young stars with the cold and dusty surrounding clouds. A red garland of cool gas also notably runs through the Trapezium, the intensely bright region that is home to four humungous blue-white stars, and up into the rich star field.
Infrared data at wavelengths of 8.0 and 24 microns from Spitzer are rendered in blue. Herschel data with wavelengths of 70 and 160 microns are represented in green and red, respectively.
This Hubble image has never been processed or published anywhere before.
The center of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), known as the Trapezium Cluster. Directly in front of Messier 42 is a small grouping of hot O and B type stars known as the trapezium which shine between 5th and 8th magnitude. This grouping represents the 4 brightest members of an extended cluster of several thousand young stars many of which lie unseen within the opaque gas and dust. The bright trapezium grouping represents the cluster core where stars are packed so tight they exceed the stellar concentration of our suns vicinity some 20,000 times.
Processing credit & copyright: Dr. Mehmet Hakan Özsaraç. It is processed by myself using NASA Fits Liberator & PS scientifically.
Tangential Velocities of Objects in the Orion Nebula and Locating the Embedded Outflow Sources.
HST Proposal 10921
Charles O'Dell (publications @ ADS)
Vanderbilt University
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope image of the central part of the Orion Nebula. Image released as part of a retrospective of the Spitzer Space Telescope, which will be deactivated early in 2020. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes have teamed up to expose the chaos that baby stars are creating 1,500 light-years away in a cosmic cloud called the Orion Nebula.
This striking infrared and visible-light composite indicates that four monstrously massive stars at the center of the cloud may be the main culprits in the familiar Orion constellation. The stars are collectively called the "Trapezium." Their community can be identified as the yellow smudge near the center of the image.
Swirls of green in Hubble's ultraviolet and visible-light view reveal hydrogen and sulfur gas that have been heated and ionized by intense ultraviolet radiation from the Trapezium's stars. Meanwhile, Spitzer's infrared view exposes carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the cloud. These organic molecules have been illuminated by the Trapezium's stars, and are shown in the composite as wisps of red and orange. On Earth, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found on burnt toast and in automobile exhaust.
Together, the telescopes expose the stars in Orion as a rainbow of dots sprinkled throughout the image. Orange-yellow dots revealed by Spitzer are actually infant stars deeply embedded in a cocoon of dust and gas. Hubble showed less embedded stars as specks of green, and foreground stars as blue spots.
Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout the cloud etched all of the well-defined ridges and cavities in Orion. The large cavity near the right of the image was most likely carved by winds from the Trapezium's stars.
Located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion, or the "Hunter" constellation. The cosmic cloud is also our closest massive star-formation factory, and astronomers believe it contains more than 1,000 young stars.
The Orion constellation is a familiar sight in the fall and winter night sky in the northern hemisphere. The nebula is in
Out of this world public domain images from NASA. All original images and many more can be found from the NASA Image Library
Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: www.rawpixel.com/board/418580/nasa
8 minutes of exposure taken with my unguided EdgeHD 9.25" and F6.3 focal reducer.
The subs were taken at prime focus on a canon 450D.
LATEST VERSION: flic.kr/p/2hrQDTW
Messier 42 / M42 / NGC 1976 / The Great Orion Nebula
Messier 43 / M43 / NGC 1982 / De Mairan's Nebula
NGC 1973 / NGC 1975 / NGC 1977 / The Running Man Nebula
The Great Orion Nebula, a giant interstellar cloud of gas and dust, is the closest region of massive star formation to us, at a distance of 1,300 light years. It is a small part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. The nebula is a vast stellar nursery 24 light years across, where new stars are being born.
Observations have revealed about 700 stars in various stages of formation. The Hubble Space Telescope recently discovered over 150 protoplanetary disks within the Orion Nebula. These disks are considered to be newborn stars in the earliest stage of solar system formation.
The red/pink hue is a result of H-alpha emission from ionized hydrogen, and the blue is caused by reflected radiation from massive type O stars. The young Trapezium Cluster, visible at the core of the nebula, is responsible for the illumination (and future destruction by photoevaporation) of the cloud.
Total integration: 1 hour 34.5 minutes (94.5 minutes)
179 x 30 seconds ISO800
30 x 10 seconds ISO800 (for the core)
Location: Burns Lake Campground in Big Cypress National Preserve near Ochopee, FL
SQM: 21.65 mag/arcsec^2 (Bortle 4)
Camera: Canon T3i (stock/unmodified)
Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80 f/6.0 Apochromatic Refractor (with ES field flattener)
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ-G (unguided)
Stacked with PixInsight, processed with PixInsight and Paint.NET
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope image of the central part of the Orion Nebula. Image released as part of a retrospective of the Spitzer Space Telescope, which will be deactivated early in 2020.
Original caption: NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes have teamed up to expose the chaos that baby stars are creating 1,500 light-years away in a cosmic cloud called the Orion Nebula.
This striking infrared and visible-light composite indicates that four monstrously massive stars at the center of the cloud may be the main culprits in the familiar Orion constellation. The stars are collectively called the "Trapezium." Their community can be identified as the yellow smudge near the center of the image.
Swirls of green in Hubble's ultraviolet and visible-light view reveal hydrogen and sulfur gas that have been heated and ionized by intense ultraviolet radiation from the Trapezium's stars. Meanwhile, Spitzer's infrared view exposes carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the cloud. These organic molecules have been illuminated by the Trapezium's stars, and are shown in the composite as wisps of red and orange. On Earth, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found on burnt toast and in automobile exhaust.
Together, the telescopes expose the stars in Orion as a rainbow of dots sprinkled throughout the image. Orange-yellow dots revealed by Spitzer are actually infant stars deeply embedded in a cocoon of dust and gas. Hubble showed less embedded stars as specks of green, and foreground stars as blue spots.
Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout the cloud etched all of the well-defined ridges and cavities in Orion. The large cavity near the right of the image was most likely carved by winds from the Trapezium's stars.
Located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion, or the "Hunter" constellation. The cosmic cloud is also our closest massive star-formation factory, and astronomers believe it contains more than 1,000 young stars.
The Orion constellation is a familiar sight in the fall and winter night sky in the northern hemisphere. The nebula is in