Starship Asterisk*

Planetary Systems Now Forming in Orion

Explanation: How do planets form? To help find out, the Hubble Space Telescope was tasked to take a detailed look at one of the more interesting of all astronomical nebulae, the Great Nebula in Orion. The Orion nebula, visible with the unaided eye near the belt in the constellation of Orion, is an immense nearby starbirth region and probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Insets to the above mosaic show numerous proplyds, many of which are stellar nurseries likely harboring planetary systems in formation. Some proplyds glow as close disks surrounding bright stars light up, while other proplyds contain disks further from their host star, contain cooler dust, and hence appear as dark silhouettes against brighter gas. Studying this dust, in particular, is giving insight for how planets are forming. Many proplyd images also show arcs that are shock waves - fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas. The Orion Nebula lies about 1,500 light years distant and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as our Sun.

The one at the top seems to be missing the gas bubble and wind shock.

Can anyone tell the size of the small squares?

waterfeller wrote:Can anyone tell the size of the small squares?

I think I read somewhere they are about 2 light-days across, but I can't seem to find it again.

Here are some interesting releases on the Orion proplyds.

Born in beauty: proplyds in the Orion Nebula
ESA Photo Release heic0917 - 2009 Dec 14

'Survivor' Planets: Astronomers Witness First Steps of Planet Growth - and Destruction
HubbleSite STScI-2001-13 - 2001 Apr 26

Panoramic Hubble Picture Surveys Star Birth, Proto-Planetary Systems in the Great Orion Nebula
HubbleSite STScI-1995-45 - 1995 Nov 20

Absolutely beautiful photo !!!

And my applause to Mainstream for continuing to launch and investigate with new and improved space based observational platforms !!!

I do have some bones to pick about the interpretation of what we think we are seeing out there tho, but I'll keep my heretical views to myself until ya'll realize that I'm Right !!! lol

And thank you, thank you, thank you, Neufer !!!
A picture is truly worth a thousand words, and you continue to post great pictures !!!
You really make this discussion page come alive with clearer visual understandings, (and humor) !!!

The explanation had links to the Hubble European Information Centre release (heic0917ab) about the topic. From previous HEIC releases brought up through APODs I suspected that the release would give no information about such as when the image data was collected. I was correct! I am curious why HEIC releases give little information whereas the Hubble NewsCenter releases give lots of information. If it had not been for the information brought up by the 'HST Orion Treasury Project Team' link in the credit I would not have known that the project was "completed in May 2005" as I had assumed that the data was collected recently.

I wonder if anyone has noticed in this photo http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091222.html an old man with gray hair and gray beard looking left towards the centre and holding his hand under it?