Hubble image archive
HOPS Sources in Orion
This ground-based image offers a wide view of the entire Orion cloud complex, the closest major star-forming region to Earth. The red material is hydrogen gas ionized and heated by ultraviolet radiation from massive stars in Orion. The stars are forming in clouds of cold hydrogen...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2021
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2021-006-01f0xrk9pf77s8sw5prtvkmerk
This ground-based image offers a wide view of the entire Orion cloud complex, the closest major star-forming region to Earth.
The red material is hydrogen gas ionized and heated by ultraviolet radiation from massive stars in Orion. The stars are forming in clouds of cold hydrogen gas that are either invisible or appear as dark regions in this image. The crescent shape is called Barnard's Loop and partly wraps around the winter constellation figure of Orion the Hunter. The hunter's belt is the diagonal chain of three stars at image center. His feet are the bright stars Saiph (bottom left) and Rigel (bottom right).
This landscape encompasses tens of thousands of newly forming stars bursting to life. Many are still encased in their natal cocoons of gas and dust and only seen in infrared light.
The undulating line of yellow dots, beginning at lower left, is a superimposed image of 304 nascent stars taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Researchers used NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes and the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Telescope to analyze how young stars' powerful outflows carve out cavities in the vast gas clouds. The study is the largest-ever survey of developing stars.
Credits
Image
Rogelio B. Andreo (RBA Premium Astrophotography)
Science
NASA, ESA, STScI, Nolan Habel (UToledo), Tom Megeath (UToledo)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Orion Nebula |
| Object Description | HOPS Sources identified in yellow over a wide-field image of Orion |
| R.A. Position | 05:35:17 |
| Dec. Position | -05:23:28 |
| Constellation | Orion |
| Distance | 1,344 light-years |
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Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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