صورة اليوم الفلکیة
Orion's Cradle
Image Credit & Copyright:
Piotr Czerski
Explanation:
Cradled in red-glowing hydrogen gas, stars are being born in Orion.
These stellar nurseries lie at the edge of the giant
Orion molecular cloud complex, some 1,500
light-years away.
This detailed view spans about 12
degrees across the
center of the well-known constellation, with the
Great Orion Nebula,
the closest large
star-forming region, visible toward the lower right.
The deep mosaic also includes, near the top center,
the Flame Nebula and the
Horsehead Nebula.
Image data acquired with a
hydrogen-alpha filter adds other remarkable features
to this wide-angle cosmic vista:
pervasive tendrils of energized atomic
hydrogen gas and portions of the surrounding
Barnard's Loop.
While the Orion Nebula and many
stars in Orion
are easy to see with the unaided eye, emission from the extensive
interstellar gas is faint and much
harder to record, even in telescopic views of the nebula-rich complex.