The Orion Nebula, which bears the name of the famous hunter from Greek mythology who was killed by a scorpion's sting, shines in full dusty glory in this newly-released image by NASA.
The stunning photo is a fusion of data from three telescopes that had previously been made public. It also tells a rather dramatic stellar death and rebirth unfolding in deep space.
With previously unreleased data from three telescopes, this stunning image of the Orion Nebula depicts two massive caves cut out by undiscovered giant stars that have the potential to emit up to a million times more light than the Sun. No stars are visible in this infrared view, only dust.
Constellation Orion
The constellation Orion, which resembles a hunter aiming a club and a shield at an invisible prey, contains the Orion Nebula. Orion's belt is a group of three stars; the area visible in the image lines up with Orion's sword, which runs perpendicular to the belt.
The area would appear to be around the size of the full moon if one could see it in the sky, according to NASA.
But most interestingly, no stars are visible in this infrared image. It is merely shrouded in dust.
Giant stars that may emit up to a million times more light than our Sun carved out the two gigantic caves that dominate the cloud.
Dust particles in this region are broken up by radiation, which contributes to the formation of the two cavities. Most of the remaining dust is carried away by stellar winds or when stars explode as supernovae.
Warm dust is represented by the blue light in these locations. The observations were supplied by NASA's decommissioned Spitzer Space Telescope and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), now known as NEOWISE.
The green dust is a little cooler along the edges of the two cavernous zones. Red denotes icy dust with a temperature of roughly - 440 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 260 Celsius).
Read also: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Captures the Sharpest, Most Detailed Image of the Orion Nebula
Light Spectrums
The far-infrared and microwave light spectrums are where cold dust emits light, and the red and green light displays data from the now-retired Herschel Space Telescope, an ESA (European Space Agency) observatory.
High-resolution pictures of these clouds, which have many curves and crevices, were possible thanks to Herschel's enormous mirror.
The cold dust is most prominent on the periphery of the dust cloud, far from the areas where stars develop.
There are orange filaments between the two hollow zones, where dust condenses and produces new stars. NASA said these filaments might eventually give birth to new big stars that will once more transform the region.
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