DRB Pic-of-the-Day: The Majesty of Orion Nebula

Pic-of-the-Day Link - by Avi Abrams "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?" --Job 38:31 The Orion Nebula has this special visual grandeur making it irresistible for amateur astronomers to study, but in addition to its colossal magnificence, it is by no means a static celestial object - inside of it rage "Stellar Winds" sending stupendous shock waves through the gas clouds, compacting them almost to the point of gravitational collapse. It is also well-known stellar nursery, continuously giving birth to new stars. Allow us another quote: "In this bowl of stars we see the entire star formation history of Orion printed into the features of the nebula: arcs, blobs, pillars, and rings of dust that resemble cigar smoke." (Massimo Robberto) (image via University of Manchester, see full size here) Here is even more impressive (and significantly bigger, if you click here) picture of Orion, obtained by the NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope: (image credit: NASA) "This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows what lies near the sword of the constellation Orion - an active stellar nursery containing thousands of young stars and developing protostars. Many will turn out like our sun. Some are even more massive. These massive stars light up the Orion nebula, which is seen here as the bright region near the center of the image. To the north of the Orion nebula is a dark filamentary cloud of cold dust and gas, over 5 light-years in length, containing ruby red protostars that jewel the hilt of Orion's sword. These are the newest generation of stars in this stellar nursery, and include the protostar HOPS 68, where Spitzer spotted tiny green crystals in a surrounding cloud of gas." CONTINUE TO OUR "AWESOME SPACE" CATEGORY ->