Flight through Orion Nebula in infrared light

This visualisation explores the Orion Nebula as seen in infrared-light observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. This video is designed to be compared and contrasted against the companion movie using visible light observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

As the camera flies into the star-forming region, it reveals a glowing gaseous landscape that 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 cool temperature gas at a deep layer that shows the full bowl shape of the nebula. In addition, the infrared showcases many faint stars that shine primarily at longer wavelengths.