Todays pic is another piccy of an old friend of pic of the day, another one of those posted just for sheer beauty.
M42: Wisps of the Orion Nebula
The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the above deep image, faint wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye just below and to the left of the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.
Credit & Copyright: John P. Gleason (Celestial Images)
A larger version of this piccy can be found here, this is a 332K Jpeg image.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
01st Mar 03
28th Feb 03
27th Feb 03
26th Feb 03
25th Feb 03
24th Feb 03
23rd Feb 03 Courtesy of Biffa
M42: Wisps of the Orion Nebula
The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the above deep image, faint wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye just below and to the left of the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.
Credit & Copyright: John P. Gleason (Celestial Images)
A larger version of this piccy can be found here, this is a 332K Jpeg image.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
01st Mar 03
28th Feb 03
27th Feb 03
26th Feb 03
25th Feb 03
24th Feb 03
23rd Feb 03 Courtesy of Biffa
