Infrared Orion
"Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula, an immense stellar nursery some 1,500 light-years away. Also known as M42, the nebula is visible to the unaided eye, but this stunning infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope penetrates the turbulent cosmic gas and dust clouds to explore the region in unprecedented detail."
Infrared Orion
mr damon, 11:29
2 Comments:
holy space, batman!!!!!
"an immense stellar nursery".....great line. so, pardon my ignorance (high school and learnign that stuff was a long time ago), but exactly what takes place in the world of nebulas? vague snippets and your line would suggest that it is an area of space that is creating new stars and possibly planets?
The ESA astro-glossary reads: "A term used by optical astronomers to denote any object that resembles a cloud, either bright or dark, and is not stellar in appearance." The Web Nebulae provides an overview with imagery.
Mr. Damon sez: A nebula is a sheath or shell, veil or mass of gas and dust in interstellar space. The cloudy appearance owes to condensation or accumulation of the material as it's influenced by gravity, heat and radiation.
Back in the day, in the 18th + 19th centuries , astronomers thought that the bright, spherical objects they saw beyond the solar system were [not yet fully formed] planets: thus, what are still referred to as planetary nebulae. There are also reflection nebulae, which are objects that reflect the light cast by star... but they can also appear alongside emission nebulae, which are gas and dust energized by nearby stars.
Because some nebulae contain the raw materials for stars and planets on a massive scale, when adequate forces act on those materials, stars and planets can begin to form. Thus, the stellar nursery inside of Orion's Trapezium region.
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