The Orion
nebula is a canvas of colors when seen by the Hubble and Spitzer space
observatories in this image and video.
Swarms of infant stars are in the midst of
creation in Orion, which sits some 1,500 light-years from Earth. In fact, the
four massive stars seen at the center of this cloud—known as the Trapezium—may
the primary shiners in the familiar Orion constellation.
VIDEO: NASA's Spitzer & Hubble Space Telescopes jointly capture baby pictures of stars 1,500 light-years away in the Orion Nebula.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Megeath & M. Robberto. Click image to view video. | Stars show
as shining dots in this view, with the orange-yellow ones stemming from Spitzer
Space Telescope while the green and blue ones were caught by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Stellar winds from young stars carve the well-defined ridges and cavities in
Orion’s gas and dust cloud, though the large cavity on the right may result
from the Trapezium. [Click here for a video on how Hubble and Spitzer produced
this image.]
The eddies
of green result from Hubble observations in the ultraviolet and visible light
wavelengths, which found hydrogen and sulfur gas that had been ionized and
heated in a bath of intense radiation.
Spitzer is
an infrared observatory, but its camera eyes reveal rich molecules known as
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons—found on burnt toast and car exhaust on Earth—within
the Orion nebula.
Astronomers believe that some 1,000
stars are getting their start in Orion, the closest star factory to Earth.
While
invisible to the naked eye, the Orion nebula’s location can be spotted since it
is in the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion constellation. A good pair
of binoculars or a small telescope
is enough to pick it out.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Megeath (University of Toledo)
& M. Robberto (STScI).
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