This dramatic view of the center of the Orion Nebula reveals the home of three speedy, wayward stars that were members of a now-defunct multiple-star system. The stellar grouping broke apart 500 years ago, flinging the three stars out of their birthplace.
The image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, combines observations taken in visible light with the Advanced Camera for Surveys and in near-infrared light with the Wide Field Camera 3. A grouping of hefty, young stars, called the Trapezium Cluster, is at the center of the image. Several hundred stars are sprinkled throughout the image. Many of them appear red because their light is being scattered by dust.
The box just above the Trapezium Cluster outlines the location of the three stars. A Hubble close-up view of the stars is shown at top right. The birthplace of the multi-star system is marked "initial position." Two of the stars — labeled BN, for Becklin-Neugebauer, and "I," for source I — were discovered decades ago. Source I is embedded in thick dust and cannot be seen. The third star, "x," for source x, was recently discovered to have moved noticeably between 1998 and 2015, as shown in the inset image at bottom right. Source x is traveling at an unusually high speed of 130,000 miles per hour, which is 30 times faster than the velocity of most stars in the nebula.
Astronomers found the speedy source x by comparing observations taken in 1998 by the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer with those taken in 2015 by the Wide Field Camera 3. Hubble's discovery of the high velocity of source x has helped astronomers solve the long-standing mystery of how the stars BN and source I acquired their fast motions.
Credits
NASA, ESA, K. Luhman (Penn State University), and M. Robberto (STScI)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Orion Nebula, M42, NGC 1976 |
| Object Description | Emission Nebula |
| R.A. Position | 05h 35m 17.0s |
| Dec. Position | -5° 23' 27.99" |
| Constellation | Orion |
| Distance | The distance to the Orion Nebula is 1,500 light-years (460 parsecs). |
| Dimensions | The color image is 7.9 arcminutes (3.4 light-years or 1.1 parsecs) wide. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The Hubble image was created from HST data from proposal : M. Robberto (/), and , M. Robberto (/) |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC, HST>WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | Oct. 2004 – Apr. 2005 (ACS) and Feb. 2015 – Oct. 2015 (WFC3/IR) |
| Filters | ACS/WFC: F435W (B), F555W (V), and F775W (i) WFC3/IR: F139M |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | The color image is a composite mosaic of many separate exposures made by the ACS and WFC3 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope using several different filters isolating the light of specific elements or of specific broad wavelength ranges. The color arises by assigning different hues (colors), to each monochromatic image. In this case, the colors are: Blue: F435W (B) Cyan: F555W (V) Yellow: F775W (i) Red: F139M |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
