Fri 7 Dec 2007
I Love These!!!!
Posted by dad under Nice Picture
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This image of the photogenic Orion Nebula was captured from Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.
One of the nearest and most active maternity wards for young stars, the nebula provides a superb opportunity for astronomers to study star formation just 1,350 light-years away (according to a recent distance calculation by radio astronomers). Large stars have shed their cocoon of dust and gas, creating an opening in the dark cloud for astronomers to peer through. Careful stargazers can even glimpse the nebula as the middle “star” in the sword of the Orion constellation, using the unaided eye.
Scientists recently examined a cloud of super-heated gas within the Orion nebula – the result of stellar wind bombardment from a single massive star – that glowed with x-rays. Such environments may very well influence the development and chemistry of newly forming planetary systems.
SPACE.com Staff
Credit: Ramesh Selvarajoo, Flynn Haase, National Optical Astronomy Observatory