A starfield is shown with a nebula glowing in red, purple, and blue. Dark brown gas is also seen on the lower left. A small cluster of stars appears in the center. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
图中显示的是一片星空，星云发出红、紫、蓝三色光芒。左下方还可以看到深褐色气体。中心出现了一个小星团。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
The featured image a starfield that glows gold. On the left is the dark horsehead nebula, while on the right is the blue-glowing Orion Nebula. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
这张特色图片是一片闪烁着金色光芒的星空。左边是黑暗的马头星云，而右边是蓝色的猎户座星云。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
2024年1月16日 The Orion You Can Almost See Image Credit & Copyright: Michele Guzzini Explanation: Do you recognize this constellation? Although it is one of the most recognizable star groupings on the sky, this is a more full Orion than you can see — an Orion only revealed with long exposure digital camera imaging and post– processing. Here the cool red giant Betelgeuse takes on a strong orange tint as the brightest star on the upper left. Orion‘s hot blue stars are numerous, with supergiant Rigel balancing Betelgeuse on the lower right, and Bellatrix at the upper right. Lined up in Orion’s belt are three stars all about 1,500 light-years away, born from the constellation’s well-studied interstellar clouds. Just below Orion’s belt is a bright but…
2024年1月5日 Trapezium: At the Heart of Orion Image Credit & Copyright: Fred Zimmer, Telescope Live Explanation: Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the heart of the Orion Nebula, are four hot, massive stars known as the Trapezium. Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius, they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster. Ultraviolet ionizing radiation from the Trapezium stars, mostly from the brightest star Theta-1 Orionis C powers the complex star forming region’s entire visible glow. About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster was even more compact in its younger years and a dynamical study indicates that runaway stellar collisions at an earlier age may have formed a black hole with more than 100 times…
2023年10月10日 Hidden Orion from Webb Image Credit & License: NASA, ESA, CSA, JWST; Processing: M. McCaughrean & S. Pearson Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion has hidden stars. To the unaided eye in visible light, it appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion. But this image was taken by the Webb Space Telescope in a representative-color composite of red and very near infrared light. It confirms with impressive detail that the Orion Nebula is a busy neighborhood of young stars, hot gas, and dark dust. The rollover image shows the same image in representative colors further into the near infrared. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula (M42) is the Trapezium – a cluster of bright stars near the nebula’s…
2023年4月7日 Rigel Wide Image Credit: Rheinhold Wittich Explanation: Brilliant, blue, supergiant star Rigel marks the foot of Orion the Hunter in planet Earth’s night. Designated Beta Orionis, it’s at the center of this remarkably deep and wide field of view. Rigel’s blue color indicates that it is much hotter than its rival supergiant in Orion the yellowish Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), though both stars are massive enough to eventually end their days as core collapse supernovae. Some 860 light-years away, Rigel is hotter than the Sun too and extends to about 74 times the solar radius. That’s about the size of the orbit of Mercury. In the 10 degree wide frame toward the nebula rich constellation, the Orion Nebula is at the upper left. To the…
2023年3月10日 Orion and the Running Man Image Credit & Copyright: Abraham Jones Explanation: Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like The Great Nebula in Orion. Visible as a faint celestial smudge to the naked-eye, the nearest large star-forming region sprawls across this sharp telescopic image, recorded on a cold January night in dark skies from West Virginia, planet Earth. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula’s glowing gas surrounds hot, young stars. About 40 light-years across, it lies at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away within the same spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy as the Sun. Along with dusty bluish reflection nebula NGC 1977 and friends near the top of the frame, the eye-catching nebulae represent only…
2021年10月6日 M43: Streams of Orion Image Credit & Copyright: Jari Saukkonen Explanation: Where do the dark streams of dust in the Orion Nebula originate? This part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, M43, is the often imaged but rarely mentioned neighbor of the more famous M42. M42, seen in part to the upper right, includes many bright stars from the Trapezium star cluster. M43 is itself a star forming region that displays intricately-laced streams of dark dust — although it is really composed mostly of glowing hydrogen gas. The entire Orion field is located about 1600 light years away. Opaque to visible light, the picturesque dark dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive cool stars and expelled by strong outer winds of protons…
2021年06月29日 Orion Nebula: The Hubble View Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing: Francisco Javier Pobes Serrano Explanation: Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula. Also known as M42, the nebula’s glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away. The Orion Nebula offers one of the best opportunities to study how stars are born partly because it is the nearest large star-forming region, but also because the nebula’s energetic stars have blown away obscuring gas and dust clouds that would otherwise block our view – providing an intimate look at a range of ongoing stages of starbirth and evolution. The featured image of the Orion Nebula is among the sharpest…
2021年05月09日 Horsehead and Orion Nebulas Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Colombari & Federico Pelliccia Explanation: The dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing Orion Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas. Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the night sky’s most recognizable constellations, they appear in opposite corners of the above stunning mosaic. The familiar Horsehead nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette notched against the long red glow at the lower left. Alnitak is the easternmost star in Orion’s belt and is seen as the brightest star to the left of the Horsehead. Below Alnitak is the Flame Nebula, with clouds of bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes. The magnificent emission region, the Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right. Immediately…
