Starbirth
This mosaic shows the center of the Orion Nebula. Many of the nebula's details can't be captured in a single picture - any more than one snapshot of the Grand Canyon yields clues to its formation and history. Like the Grand Canyon, the Orion nebula has a dramatic surface topography — of glowing gasses instead of rock — with peaks, valleys and walls. They are illuminated and heated by a torrent of energetic ultraviolet light from its four hottest and most massive stars, called the Trapezium, which lie near the center of the image.
Credit:
NASA, C.R. O'Dell and S.K. Wong (Rice University)
About the Image
NASA press release
| Id: | opo9545m |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 20 November 1995, 06:00 |
| Size: | 1792 x 2097 px |
About the Object
| Name: | Messier 42, NGC 1976, Orion Nebula |
| Type: | • Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Disk : Protoplanetary • Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation • Nebulae Images/Videos |
| Distance: | 1400 light years |
Colours & filters
| Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
| Optical OIII |
502 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Optical H-alpha |
656 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Optical NII |
658 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
