Flight through the Orion Nebula in visible and infrared light — dome version

This version of "Flight Through the Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared Light" has been rendered onto a hemispherical format (azimuthal equidistant projection) for use in planetarium domes. The black circular mask in the images denotes the edge of the hemispherical dome projection. The video is for preview purposes. Planetariums will want to download the frames and the audio files (see links on the right side of this web page).

This visualization explores the Orion Nebula using both visible-light observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and infrared-light observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The contrast between visible and infrared views of the nebula are examined using two spatially matched three-dimensional models.

As the camera flies into the star-forming region, the sequence cross-fades back and forth between the visible and infrared views. The glowing gaseous landscape has been illuminated and carved by the high energy radiation and strong stellar winds from the massive hot stars in the central cluster. The infrared observations generally show cooler temperature gas at a deeper layer of the nebula that extends well beyond the visible image. In addition, the infrared showcases many faint stars that shine primarily at longer wavelengths. The higher resolution visible observations show finer details including the wispy bow shocks and tadpole-shaped proplyds. In this manner, the movie illustrates the contrasting features uncovered by multi-wavelength astronomy.