The Orion Nebula in Hydrogen
Credit & Copyright:
Robert Gendler
The
Great Nebula in Orion can be found just below
and to the left of the easily identifiable
belt of three stars in the popular
constellation Orion.
This fuzzy patch,
visible to the unaided eye,
contains one of the closest
stellar nurseries, lying at a distance of about 1500
light years.
The
above picture highlights red light emitted
by the nebula's hydrogen gas.
Dark
dust
filaments punctuate regions of this glowing hydrogen
gas and reflect light from the
nebula's brightest stars.
Recent observations of the
Orion Nebula by the
Hubble Space Telescope
have located
solar-system sized regions that are
thought to be planet-forming circumstellar disks.