COLLECTION NAME:
NASA Great Images in Nasa Collection
Record
Title:
The Orion Nebula
Full Description:
This spectacular color panorama of the center the Orion nebula is one of the largest pictures ever assembled from individual images taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The picture, seamlessly composited from a mosaic of 15 separate fields, covers an area of sky about five percent the area covered by the full Moon. The seemingly infinite tapestry of rich detail revealed by Hubble shows a churning turbulent star factory set within a maelstrom of flowing, luminescent gas. Though this 2.5 light-years wide view is still a small portion of the entire nebula, it includes almost all of the light from the bright glowing clouds of gas and a star cluster associated with the nebula. The mosaic reveals at least 153 glowing protoplanetary disks (first discovered with the 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 proplyds that are closest to the Trapezium stars (image center) are shedding some of their gas and dust. The pressure of starlight from the hottest stars forms "tails" which act like wind vanes pointing away from the Trapezium. These tails result from the light from the star pushing the dust and gas away from the outside layers of the proplyds. In addition to the luminescent proplyds, seven disks are silhouetted against the bright background of the nebula. 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.
Date:
11/20/1995
NASA Center:
Hubble Space Telescope Center
Subject Category:
Deep Space Studies
Subject Category:
Hubble
Keywords:
HST
Keywords:
Hubble
Keywords:
Nebula
Keywords:
Orion
Keywords:
Space
Keywords:
Telescope
Keywords:
Trapezium
Audience:
General Public
facet_what:
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
facet_what:
Moon
facet_what:
Orion
facet_what:
Sun
facet_when:
11-20-1995
facet_when:
1992
facet_when_year:
1992
facet_when_year:
1995
Image #:
PR95-45A
UID:
SPD-GRIN-GPN-2000-000983
Center:
HSTI
Center Number:
PR95-45A
GRIN DataBase Number:
GPN-2000-000983
Creator-Photographer:
NASA, C.R. O
Original Source:
DIGITAL
