Flight Through the Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared Light

  • Released Friday, May 25, 2018
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This visualization zooms into the Orion Nebula and then flies through a 3D model using both visible light (Hubble Space Telescope) and infrared light (Spitzer Space Telescope) views.

This visualization explores the Orion Nebula using both visible and infrared light. The sequence begins with a wide-field view of the sky showing the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, then zooms down to the scale of the Orion Nebula. The visible light observation (from the Hubble Space Telescope) and the infrared light observation (from the Spitzer Space Telescope) are compared first in two-dimensional images, and then in three-dimensional models.

As the camera flies into the star-forming region, the sequence cross-fades back and forth between the visible and infrared views. The glowing gaseous landscape has been illuminated and carved by the high energy radiation and strong stellar winds from the massive hot stars in the central cluster. The infrared observations generally show cooler temperature gas at a deeper layer of the nebula that extends well beyond the visible image. In addition, the infrared showcases many faint stars that shine primarily at longer wavelengths. The higher resolution visible observations show finer details including the wispy bow shocks and tadpole-shaped proplyds. In this manner, the movie illustrates the contrasting features uncovered by multi-wavelength astronomy.

This visualization flies through a 3D model of the Orion Nebula based on visible light observations from the Hubble Space Telescope.

This visualization flies through a 3D model of the Orion Nebula based on infrared light observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope.

For More Information

See http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2018-04

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA, ESA, and F. Summers, G. Bacon, Z. Levay, J. DePasquale, L. Hustak, L. Frattare, M. Robberto, M. Gennaro (STScI), R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC), M. Kornmesser (ESA)

Acknowledgement: A. Fujii, R. Gendler

This page was originally published on Friday, May 25, 2018.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 12:40 AM EST.

Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions: