Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Infrared Orion from WISE

NASA ^ | February 13, 2013 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

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.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA]

[SunkenCiv]

This would be more appropriate on St Pat's Day, but, oh, how pretty.

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[shibumi]

Thanks for your continued posting.

[cripplecreek]

Lots of structure in that one.

[onyx]

Beautiful!
Thanks so much, SunkenCiv.
I loved yesterday’s too, but didn’t get the chance to post on the thread.

[left that other site]

I am very upset to read that my FAVORITE Nebula will be dispersing in the next 100,000 years.
I am sure that, somehow, it’s obama’s fault.

[TheOldLady]

Lotus blossom! Very pretty, indeed.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Global warming, y’know.

[SunkenCiv]

I just love a good nebula, and this is a great one.