Herschel’s view of Orion A
The Orion A star-formation cloud seen by ESA’s Herschel space
observatory. The Orion Nebula is located within the central bright
region of this scene, where massive star formation is most intense.
Cooler gas and dust is seen in red and yellow, with point-like sources
the seeds of new stars.
The image is a composite of the
wavelengths of 70 microns (blue), 160 microns (green) and 250 microns
(red) and spans about 1.3 x 2.4 degrees. North is up and east is to the
left.
Copyright: ESA/Herschel/ Ph. André, V. Könyves, N. Schneider (CEA Saclay, France) for the Gould Belt survey Key Programme
This new view of the Orion A star-formation cloud from ESA’s Herschel
space observatory shows the turbulent region of space that hugs the
famous Orion Nebula.
The nebula lies about 1500 light years from Earth within the ‘sword of
Orion’ – below the three main stars that form the belt of the Orion
constellation.
In this view, the nebula corresponds to the brightest region in the
centre of the image, where it is lit up by the Trapezium group of stars
at its heart.
The scene is awash with turbulent star formation, the fierce ultraviolet
radiation of massive new born stars blasting away their surrounding
cloudy cocoons, carving ethereal shapes into the gas and dust.
Wispy tendrils rise like flames away from some of the most intense
regions of star formation, while pillars of denser material withstand
the searing blaze for longer.
Great arms of gas and dust extend from the Orion Nebula to form a ring,
while a spine of cooler material weaves up through the scene to a halo
of cloudy star-formation material above.
Embedded within the red and yellow filaments are a handful of point-like
sources: these are protostars, the seeds of new stars that will soon
ignite and begin to flood their surrounds with intense radiation.
The black regions to the top of the image and to the bottom right may
seem like voids, but actually contain hints of much fainter emission
that has not been emphasised in this image.
The red ‘islands’ of emission in the bottom right are also a subtle
trick of image processing for they are connected to the main cloud by
much fainter emission. The bright ‘eyes’ in the two most distinct clouds
indicates that the tip of each pillar has already collapsed and is
forming stars.
Source: ESA
