APOD: M42: Inside the Orion Nebula (2014 Apr 08)

[APOD Robot]

M42: Inside the Orion Nebula

Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the above deep image composite in assigned colors taken by the Hubble Space Telescope wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye near the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain much hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.

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[Ann]

Oh, that's a pretty picture!

Looks like something by Monet.

Ann

[Nitpicker]

Magnificent, but why present the mirror image?

[geckzilla]

Magnificent, but why present the mirror image?

All the FITS data coming from the HLA has to be flipped to display it properly. Some people just don't do it for some reason. That is probably the last thing on a long list of criticism I might give this image if I were in a bad mood, though.

[Nitpicker]

It would be the first and only criticism from me, and even then it would be posed more as a question. One sees so many variants of this part of the sky, I wouldn't know what else to say.

[geckzilla]

True enough. It is rather hackneyed. A lot of people do seem to like pictures with extreme colors and high contrast. These things attract attention. Also, I could just be an elitist jerk... maybe I need to lighten up.

[michelsberg]

I actually think this image is disgusting. It looks like a 4 year old discovered Photoshop.

Boy: "What is E-d-g-e ... e-n-h-a-n-c-i-n-g...? Lets look what happens... WHOAAA!"
https://www.google.com/search?q=M42&tbm=isch

[neufer]

I actually think this image is disgusting. It looks like a 4 year old discovered Photoshop.

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The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the above deep image composite in assigned colors taken by the Hubble Space Telescope wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye near the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium, the stellar nurseries. These nurseries contain much hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.

[Joules]

It's a Psychedelic Freakout!
Does it also come in eyestunningly oversaturated shades of green and purple?

[CURRAHEE CHRIS]

Looks very angry, very violent.

[BDanielMayfield]

When you’re used to just seeing M42 with the naked eye hanging at the bottom of Orion’s sword or through binoculars and a small telescope you get used to seeing it as just whitish gray. I know that that is just an impression caused by low light levels and that M42 really is magnificently colorful, as countless images demonstrate. But with all due respect to the producers of this image, I still have to agree with the negative sentiments.

I like color, and reds and purples are my favorite colors, but in this image the colors are pushed to a garish extreme, IMO.

[Ann]

Looks very angry, very violent.

Although I myself love colors, and find this picture very beautiful (because its colors are "enhanced", but not "false"), I certainly respect the fact that others don't share my sense of beauty.

I would like to say this, though. The Orion Nebula probably is a quite violent place!

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

True enough. It is rather hackneyed. A lot of people do seem to like pictures with extreme colors and high contrast. These things attract attention. Also, I could just be an elitist jerk... maybe I need to lighten up.

An image like this, by itself, is not very representative of the object. This sort of processing- extreme saturation, extreme contrast stretching, extreme sharpening- is frequently useful for bringing detail to our attention that might otherwise be missed. But it's most useful when combined with other views- for instance, luminance only, no sharpening, different intensity transfer curves.

[MarkBour]

All right, the colors are vigorous, vivid, vibrant, vivacious, and virile. (Oops, a 4-year-old got ahold of a Thesaurus!)

I'm curious about what is going on right at the center where the reds turn to yellow.
Is that a proto-star? What does it take, about 10 million years to condense?

I'm struck by how much the image is reminiscent of an embryo implanting itself into the uterine wall.

[CURRAHEE CHRIS]

Although I myself love colors, and find this picture very beautiful (because its colors are "enhanced", but not "false"), I certainly respect the fact that others don't share my sense of beauty.

I would like to say this, though. The Orion Nebula probably is a quite violent place!

Ann

Agreed- that was probably the point I was going for but had just settled in at work and hadnt tackled my coffee yet I know when I first saw the picture I could only think of fire (and explosions)- interesting how pictures with more subdued hues like purples, lighter blues might not have triggered that as a first response. I am quite sure there are many more pictures that are enhanced and would register in my mind as peaceful or serene but in fact are no less violent than anywhere else in space.

[BDanielMayfield]

I'm curious about what is going on right at the center where the reds turn to yellow.
Is that a proto-star? What does it take, about 10 million years to condense?

I'm struck by how much the image is reminiscent of an embryo implanting itself into the uterine wall.

No Mark, it isn't a proto-star, but your not far off. It is the Trapezium Cluster of several newly formed stars. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezium_Cluster

The Orion Nebula is a very fertile stellar nursery.

Bruce

[Anthony Barreiro]

True enough. It is rather hackneyed. A lot of people do seem to like pictures with extreme colors and high contrast. These things attract attention. Also, I could just be an elitist jerk... maybe I need to lighten up.

An image like this, by itself, is not very representative of the object. This sort of processing- extreme saturation, extreme contrast stretching, extreme sharpening- is frequently useful for bringing detail to our attention that might otherwise be missed. But it's most useful when combined with other views- for instance, luminance only, no sharpening, different intensity transfer curves.

The links in the caption are very helpful in this regard. I especially like Rogelio Bernal Andreo's panorama of the entire constellation of Orion, and this zoom-in video from the European Southern Observatory's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy.

If in some strange alternate universe or purgatorial realm we were forced to choose only one image of any particular object or phenomenon to contemplate for all time, today's apod would not be my first choice for the Orion nebula. I'm grateful we don't live in such a universe. Let a thousand flowers bloom, and ten thousand nebulae glow.

[drollere]

lurid and dripping like melting crayons, that is the ugliest rendering of the orion nebula i have ever seen. absolutely dreadful. clumsy, clotted and fatuously indulgent. utterly tasteless. nothing to see for science or for art.

[BDanielMayfield]

lurid and dripping like melting crayons, that is the ugliest rendering of the orion nebula i have ever seen. absolutely dreadful. clumsy, clotted and fatuously indulgent. utterly tasteless. nothing to see for science or for art.

But what do you really think?

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

I think you all are beating around the bush. Why wouldn't some astrophotographers be trying to merge their scientific capabilities with their artistic tendencies? Given the information which is trying to be resolved, this "starbirth" region is too closely reminiscent to its human counterpoint and it may be difficult to believe it's only by chance. I can only wonder; art , science or a little bit of both?

[Boomer12k]

WOW....that is awesome.....my favorite place, and object, I think. So many things going on. All the shocks, and wave striations, etc...

Van Gogh could not do better, I think....debatable, of course...

Great detail and work.

:---[===] *

[DavidLeodis]

In the information brought up through the first link in the explanation to this APOD it states "Observers have long noted a distinctive greenish tint to the nebula, in addition to regions of red and of blue-violet...The green hue was a puzzle for astronomers in the early part of the 20th century because none of the known spectral lines at that time could explain it. There was some speculation that the lines were caused by a new element, and the name "nebulium" was coined for this mysterious material. With better understanding of atomic physics, however, it was later determined that the green spectrum was caused by a low-probability electron transition in doubly ionized oxygen, a so-called "forbidden transition". This radiation was all but impossible to reproduce in the laboratory because it depended on the quiescent and nearly collision-free environment found in deep space.".

Wow! nebulium, mysterious material, low-probability electron transition, forbidden transition, etc. All fascinating stuff.

One personal gripe (apart from the colours of the processed image) is that as I like to use links in the explanation to APODs I did find the 27 links in the explanation to this APOD were far too many, such that I gave up on using many of them. There has been a tendency for quite some time now to increase the number of links to further information (which must take time in the production of an APOD) but I wonder just how many ever get used?

[neufer]

Gaudy, a. [F. gaudir, to rejoice, Latin gaudēre, to enjoy.]

• 1. Ostentatiously fine; showy; gay, but tawdry or meretricious.
  • Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
    But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy. Shak.
  2. Gay; merry; festal. Tennyson.
  • Let's have one other gaudy night. Shak.

[b][color=#0000FF]The Gaudí nave in the Sagrada Familia with a hyperboloid vault. Inspiration from nature is taken from a tree.[/color][/b]

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[b][color=#0000FF]North Polar region of Mercury[/color][/b]

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<<Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Spanish Catalan architect from Reus, who was the figurehead of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works reflect his highly individual and distinctive style and are largely concentrated in Barcelona. Gaudí's work enjoys widespread international appeal and many studies are devoted to understanding his architecture. Today, his work finds admirers among architects and the general public alike. His masterpiece, the still-uncompleted Sagrada Família, is the most-visited monument in Spain.

Gaudí's personal appearance—Nordic features, blond hair and blue eyes—changed radically over the course of time. As a young man, he dressed like a dandy in costly suits, sporting well-groomed hair and beard, indulging gourmet taste, making frequent visits to the theatre and the opera and visiting his project sites in a horse carriage. The older Gaudí ate frugally, dressed in old, worn-out suits. On 7 June 1926, Gaudí was struck by a passing tram and lost consciousness. Assumed to be a beggar because of his lack of identity documents and shabby clothing, the unconscious Gaudí did not receive immediate aid. By the time that the chaplain of the Sagrada Família recognised him on the following day, Gaudí's condition had deteriorated too severely to benefit from additional treatment. Gaudí died on 10 June 1926 at the age of 73 and was buried two days later. A large crowd gathered to bid farewell to him in the chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the crypt of the Sagrada Família.>>

[geckzilla]

One personal gripe (apart from the colours of the processed image) is that as I like to use links in the explanation to APODs I did find the 27 links in the explanation to this APOD were far too many, such that I gave up on using many of them. There has been a tendency for quite some time now to increase the number of links to further information (which must take time in the production of an APOD) but I wonder just how many ever get used?

Little known fun fact: You can often tell which editor was responsible for the day's APOD based on the frequency of hyperlinks used within the explanation. If there's more, it was Robert. If there's less, it was Jerry. Owlice tipped me off to this.

[Chris Peterson]

One personal gripe (apart from the colours of the processed image) is that as I like to use links in the explanation to APODs I did find the 27 links in the explanation to this APOD were far too many, such that I gave up on using many of them. There has been a tendency for quite some time now to increase the number of links to further information (which must take time in the production of an APOD) but I wonder just how many ever get used?

I scan my mouse over the links and check where they go before clicking. I can usually tell if it's something I want to follow.

In any case, it's easier not to click on a link than it is to follow a link not present. Better too many than too few.