Orion Nebula is Stunning. It is Stellar Nursery Where New Stars are Being Born.

During the 18th century, famed French astronomer Charles Messier observed several objects in the night sky. He had mistaken them for comets initially. But realized they were not. He began a creating a list of them which is now famoulsy called Messier Catalog which inlcudes 100 of the most amazing objects of night sky.

One of these objects is the Orion Nebula or M42, seen above, the real picture has been taken last month by a powerful ground based telescope located on top of a mountain in Chile. Located around 1350 light years from earth in the costellation of Orion, it is the closest region to earth, a massive star forming region where new stars are being born from the interstellar clouds of Hydrogen, Oxygen etc. The Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of gas and dust, one of many in our Milky Way galaxy.

The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have directly observed protoplanetary disks, brown dwarfs etc. The Orion Nebula gets its reddish hue from hydrogen gas, which is energized by radiation from newborn stars. While the red areas are emitting light, the blue-violet regions in the nebula are reflecting radiation from hot, blue-white O-type stars.  “When you look closely, you see that the nebula is filled with hundreds of visible shock waves,” said Bob O’Dell, an astronomer from Vanderbilt University. He has also created a map of 2 star forming regions where winds have been blowing for atleast 1500 years.

For most observers, it appears to have a slight greenish color – caused by oxygen being stripped of electrons by radiation from nearby stars. A Stunning Visual Feast!

Photo/Info Credit: NASA, UniverseToday