Photo
taken by Brian Hicks. Nov. 24, 1999
with
a signal to noise ratio of 210.
| The Great Orion Nebula |
Photo
taken by Brian Hicks. Nov. 24, 1999
with
a signal to noise ratio of 210.
| Right Ascension | 5: 35.4 (h:m) |
| Declination | -5: 27 (deg:m) |
| Distance | 1.5 -1.6 kly |
| Visual Brightness | 4.0 mag |
| Orion's History:
The Orion Nebula is located about 1500 light years away along a spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. As its name suggests, this emission nebula lies in the Orion constellation. On clear nights it can be seen through binoculars as a fuzzy patch below the belt of Orion, near his sword. Being one of the brightest diffuse nebula in the galaxy, the image of Orion is spectacular for both amateur and professional astronomers. The Orion Nebula is actually the main part of a much larger cloud of gas and dust which extends over half of the Orion constellation. This cloud includes both the Horsehead nebula and Barnard's loop. |
| Horsehead Nebula: | Barnard's Loop |
| Features of the Great Orion Nebula |
| The above photo is a small portion of the Orion nebula. It was taken in 1993 by the Hubble Space telescope wide field and planetary camera. The light and dark blobs are actually proplyds or protoplanetary disks. These are stars surrounded by gas and dust which someday may form into a planetary system. The field of view in this photo is about .14 light-years |