Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jan 13, 2006 15:57:46 GMT -6
Hubble's Sharpest View of the Orion Nebula
This dramatic image offers a peek inside a cavern of roiling dust and gas where thousands of stars are forming. The image, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, represents the sharpest view ever taken of this region, called the Orion Nebula. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. Some of them have never been seen in visible light. These stars reside in a dramatic dust-and-gas landscape of plateaus, mountains, and valleys that are reminiscent of the Grand Canyon.
The Orion Nebula is 1,500 light-years away, the nearest star-forming region to Earth. Astronomers used 520 Hubble images, taken in five colors, to make this picture. They also added ground-based photos to fill out the nebula. The ACS mosaic covers approximately the apparent angular size of the full moon.
More here: heritage.stsci.edu/
www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=18725
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Mapping Orion's winds
New data from the Hubble Orion Heritage Program, a major observational effort by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2004 and 2005, have given the Vanderbilt astronomer the information he needs to measure the stellar winds with unprecedented detail, and he reported his early results on Jan. 11 at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington D.C.
"Determining how stellar winds interact with the ambient material in stellar nurseries like Orion is a critical factor in understanding the process of star creation," says O'Dell, distinguished research professor of astrophysics and an international authority on Orion.
When you look closely enough, you see that the nebula is filled with hundreds of visible shock waves," the astronomer says.
In his analysis, O'Dell has identified three different types of shock waves:
* Bow-shocks are stationary shock waves that are formed by the collision of two steady winds and are excellent indicators of wind direction. They are present near the hottest stars in the center of the nebula where they show winds flowing outward at velocities of thousands of kilometers per second. They are also present in the outer nebula where they are produced by low velocity stellar winds of tens of kilometers per second.
* Jet-driven shocks are produced when narrow streams of gas and particles traveling at hundreds of kilometers per second pass through gas that is relatively stationary. There are many shockwaves of this type in the nebula that are produced by jets of material ejected by newly formed stars.
* Warped shocks are jet-driven shocks located in areas where the ambient gas is not stationary but is moving in a cross current. This bends the jets and shocks into bow-like shapes.
More here: www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=18720
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What a coolist image of the Nebula yet! Stars never before seen, shock waves and more.
Here is a zoomable view of the M42: tinyurl.com/bakhp
The main shock wave near the center looks like it's interacting with that star's heliosphere...quite remarkable! And to it's upper left, there is a dark matter object visable. What occurs to me in examining this grandacious image from the Hubble, is what is occuring within the Trapizium, in which is visable in any telescope. Just suppose there are planets with inhabitants there...and let's just say that conditions exist for life to flourish. The light must be intense...with four suns in their sky.
Check here for the complete collection of M42 images..including a Massive 385 MB download!
The Hubble Lives!... ;D
