Spitzer's Orion
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the
Day
Few cosmic vistas excite
the imagination like the
Orion Nebula, an immense stellar nursery some 1,500 light-years away.
This
stunning false-color view spans about 40 light-years across the
region, constructed using infrared
data from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Compared to its visual wavelength appearance,
the brightest portion of the nebula is likewise centered on Orion's young,
massive, hot stars, known as the Trapezium Cluster.
But the infrared image
also detects the nebula's many protostars, still in the process of formation,
seen here in red hues.
In fact, red spots along
the dark dusty filament to the left of the bright cluster include the protostar
cataloged as HOPS 68, recently found
to have crystals of the silicate mineral olivine within its protostellar envelope.
