Orion Nebula

Extended Description

This square-shaped image looks like an abstract oil painting in vibrant shades of orange, purple, pink, gray-green and yellow against a black, star-speckled background. The dazzling colors are arranged in roughly two connected sections—a smaller, roughly crescent-like piece in the upper, left corner, and a larger, fan-shaped portion that extends from the bottom of the crescent to the bottom of the lower right quadrant of the square. Together, the two sections form a diagonally arranged pattern that is reminiscent of a festive, cap-sleeved, cinch-waisted, full-skirted dress from the 1950s.

In reality, this is the star-forming region called the Orion Nebula, and more than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. These stars are surrounded by a colorful cloudy materials forming structures that look similar to plateaus, mountain peaks, valleys, and pillars.

At the heart of this image, in its dazzlingly bright center, is the Trapezium, a group of four brilliant and massive stars arranged in a trapezoidal pattern. Ultraviolet light unleashed by these stars is carving a large cavity in the nebula and influencing the growth of hundreds of smaller stars.

Sprinkled throughout the picture are several dozen other particularly large, bright, young stars. Most are white, but one near the bottom of the lower, right quadrant is baby blue. Near the bottom of the image are many tiny, faint, red, star-like points. These are brown dwarfs, sometimes called "failed stars."

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Orion Nebula