This photograph is part of a large mosaic view of the complex stellar nursery in the Orion Nebula. The young variable star LL Orionis produces a stellar wind more energetic than the wind from our own middle-aged Sun. As its fast stellar wind smacks into slow moving gas, a shock front is formed, just like the bow wave of a boat moving through water or a plane traveling at supersonic speed. The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of center is LL Ori’s cosmic bow shock. It’s about half a light-year across.
Image Credit: ESA / NASA
This close-up of cosmic clouds and stellar winds in the Orion Nebula shows the young star LL Orionis interacting with the nebula’s main flow. LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than the wind from our own Sun, and as its the fast stellar wind runs into slower moving gas, a shock front, analogous to the bow wave of a boat moving through water, forms. The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of center is LL Ori’s cosmic bow shock. It’s roughly half a light-year across. The slower gas is flowing away from the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula’s hot central star cluster located off the upper left corner of the picture.