Posted on 05/17/2016 2:52:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit and Copyright, Infrared: NASA, Spitzer Space Telescope; Visible: Oliver Czernetz, Siding Spring Obs.]
Orion has to be the most visually fascinating part of the heavens.
I have had several people mistakenly think it is the big dipper.
Blow that up to 6 feet by eight.
Hang it in an art museum.
ooooo Yeeeaaahhhh.....
The Big Dipper dips, and ploughs and whatnot, but Orion’s an archer, plus, I love me some good nebula.
This is one of my earlier shots of Orion M42. Unfortunately during processing of the data, the Nebula core was blown out. I will eventually reprocess the image. The nebula is about 1400 light years from Earth. It is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is about 24 light years across.
Doesn’t Georgia O’Keeffe have a copyright on that?
Here is Hubble's entry of the same nebula.
Credits:
January 11, 2006: In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula.
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