Star Birth

Spectacular color panorama of the center of the Orion nebula assembled from individual images taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. To create... more

by Nasa

Title

Star Birth

Artist

Nasa

Medium

Photograph

Description

Spectacular color panorama of the center of the Orion nebula assembled from individual images taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. To create this color mosaic, 45 separate images of the Orion nebula were taken in blue, green, and red between January 1994 and March 1995. Light emitted by oxygen is shown as blue, hydrogen emission is shown as green, and nitrogen emission as red light. The seemingly infinite tapestry of rich detail revealed by Hubble shows a churning turbulent star factory set within a maelstrom of flowing, luminescent gas. The mosaic reveals at least 153 glowing protoplanetary disks (first discovered with Hubble in 1992, and dubbed "proplyds") that are believed to be embryonic solar systems that will eventually form planets. (Our solar system has long been considered the relic of just such a disk that formed around the newborn Sun). The abundance of such objects in the Orion nebula strengthens the argument that planet formation is a common occurrence in the universe. Located 1,500 light-years away, along our spiral arm of the Milky Way, the Orion nebula is located in the middle of the sword region of the constellation Orion the Hunter, which dominates the early winter evening sky, at northern latitudes.

Uploaded

May 30th, 2013