Star Storm

Credit: C.R. O’Dell (Rice Uni­ver­sity), and ESA/Hub­ble & NASA

A storm of star­birth brews inside the Orion Neb­ula in this image from the NASA/ESA Hub­ble Space Telescope.

Explore the heart of the most famous star-making neb­u­lae, M42. What sto­ries or shapes do you see in this star cloud? Let your imag­i­na­tion roam and share a note below.

The Orion Neb­ula is vis­i­ble in the north­ern hemi­sphere sky right now, rid­ing high in the south just after sun­set. You can find it just below the three stars that mark Orion’s Belt. It’s the fuzzy spot, the mid­dle star in the sword of Orion. In binoc­u­lars, the neb­ula is obvious.

This image only cov­ers the heart of the Orion Neb­ula. Stars here are being born con­stantly. Plan­e­tary sys­tems like our solar sys­tem may be form­ing out of the gas and dust left over from a star’s birth. With sear­ing wind and ultra­vi­o­let light, the new stars blast away mate­r­ial after they are born. The ultra­vi­o­let light from these new­borns causes the sur­round­ing neb­ula to glow.

Located about 1,500 light years away, the mas­sive neb­ula is one of the clos­est regions of star for­ma­tion from Earth. A star­ship cruis­ing at the speed of light, or 6 tril­lion miles per year, would take more than 24 years to cross the Great Neb­ula. But the entire neb­ula is much larger includ­ing the Horse­head Neb­ula and the Flame Nebula.

Comments

S 29-03-2011, 09:16

I see Aslan! Right below cen­ter, zoomed all the way in, his eyes are closed and his head thrown back.

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