A NASA Hubble Space Telescope picture of three protoplanetary disks, called "proplyds" in the Orion Nebula, a star-forming region 1,500 light-years away. Each proplyd appears as thick disk with a hole in the middle where the cool star is located. Radiation from nearby hot stars "boils off" material from the disk's surface. This material is then blown back into a comet-like tail by a stellar "wind" of radiation and subatomic particles streaming from the hot stars. This material has only recently become illuminated by the hottest star of the Orion Nebula. Each picture is only 12.07 light-days across. Each picture element (pixel) is 50 astronomical units, or fifty times the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. This color photograph is a composite of separate images taken at the wavelengths of the two abundant elements in the nebula: Hydrogen and Oxygen, and the red image was made to isolate the star's image. The images were taken with HST's Wide Field and Planetary Camera (in wide field mode), on August 13 and 14, 1991.
Credits
Credit: C.R. O'Dell (Rice University), and NASA| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Orion Nebula |
| R.A. Position | 05h 35m 17.29s |
| Dec. Position | -5° 23' 27.99" |
| 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 |
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| 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. |
