M42 is most commonly known as the Orion Nebula, but it’s also called the Turkey Nebula.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Image Credit: NASA
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Tag Archives: Orion Nebula
The Orion Nebula
The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye even in areas affected by minor light pollution. It is seen as the middle “star” in the sword of Orion, the three stars located below Orion’s Belt. The “star” appears fuzzy to sharp-eyed observers, and its nebulosity is obvious through binoculars or a small telescope.
Image Credit: NASA
The Turkey Nebula
M42 is most commonly known as the Orion Nebula, but it’s also called the Turkey Nebula.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Image Credit: NASA
The Orion Nebula
This is a composite of over 80 images taken by ESO’s Very Large Telescope.
Image Credit: ESO / M.McCaughrean et al. (AIP)
Spitzer’s Orion
The Orion Nebula is a stellar nursery 1,500 light-years from here. This false-color infrared view is about 40 light-years across and was assembled using data from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Looking at the nebula in visible light shows many newly-formed stars. This infrared image also shows the nebula’s many protostars still in the process of formation. They show up in the red areas of the image. One of the red spots along the dark dusty filament to the left is and odd protostar cataloged as HOPS 68. It wasrecently found to have crystals of the silicate mineral olivine within its protostellar envelope.
Image Credit: NASA
The Orion Nebula in Infrared
The Orion Nebula (aka M42 or Messier 42) is a common target for backyard observers with small telescopes. This view was made by the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA infrared telescope in Chile.
Image Credit: ESO / J. Emerson / VISTA.
Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
The Orion Nebula in Infrared
The Orion nebula is featured in this image from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The constellation Orion is prominent in the night sky from December through April. The nebula (aka Messier 42 or M42) is in Orion’s sword which hangs from his famous belt of three stars. The star cluster embedded in the nebula appears to be a single fuzzy star to the naked eye.
The Maya of Mesoamerica envisioned the lower portion of Orion, what we call his belt and feet, as being the hearthstones of creation, similar to the triangular three-stone hearth at the center of traditional Maya homes. The Orion nebula, lying at the center of the triangle, was seen by the Maya as the cosmic fire of creation surrounded by smoke. That turns out to be an apt metaphor. The nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where new stars are being born. It is one of the closest nurseries of star formation to the Earth and, therefore, provides astronomers with their best view of stellar formation.
This picture spans more than six times the width of the full moon, covering a region nearly 100 light-years across. The green stuff surrounding the nebula is interstellar dust. Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at around 3.4 µm wavelength, and cyan represents 4.6 µm, both of which are generated mostly by hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 12 µm light, and red represents 22 µm light.
Image Credit: NASA