SOFIA views Orion in Mid-IR

  • Released Thursday, October 17th, 2013
  • Updated Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 at 12:23AM
  • ID: 30132

This three-panel comparison of Orion's Messier 42 (M42) region is composed of a visible light image from the Hubble Space Telescope, a near-infrared image captured by the European Southern Observatory in Chile, and a mid-infrared mosaic image taken by SOFIA's Faint Object InfraRed Camera for the SOFIA Telescope, or FORCAST.

The FORCAST image, a two-filter false-color composite (20 microns – green, 37 microns – red), reveals detailed structures in the clouds of star forming material, as well as heat radiating from a cluster of luminous newborn stars seen in the upper right.

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Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
Visible-light image: NASA/ESA/HST/AURA/STScI/O'Dell & Wong; Near-IR image: ESO/McCaughrean et al.; Mid-IR image: NASA/DLR/SOFIA/USRA/DSI/FORCAST Team


Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions: