Zoom into the Orion Nebula

Orion Nebula's Planetary Nurseries Torched By Radiation from Hot Star

Planet formation is a hazardous process. These four snapshots, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, show dust disks around embryonic stars in the Orion Nebula being "blowtorched" by a blistering flood of ultraviolet radiation from the region's brightest star. Within these...

A Protoplanetary Disk Silhouetted Against the Orion Nebula

Proplyd in Orion Nebula

Proplyd in Orion Nebula

Proplyd in Orion Nebula

Proplyd in Orion Nebula

Illustration of the Dynamics of a Proplyd

As fine dust particles clump together deep inside the protoplanetary disk, ultraviolet radiation from a nearby hot star eats away at the disk. The outer portions of the gas bubble are then heated and removed by energetic ultraviolet radiation. Material falling from the disk...

Orion Nebula Fly-Through

This animation reveals the topography and beauty of the Orion Nebula like never before. Based on data obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, all of the gas clouds, stars and proplyds are positioned as accurately as possible. The animation ends with a close-up examination of the...

HubbleMinute: Orion's Survivor Game

This HubbleMinute tells the story of new research on the proplyds-disks around young stars thought to be the seeding ground for planets. One the one hand, scientists are seeing the beginning of planet formation more clearly than ever before, but on the other hand Orion's...

Interview with Dr. Alan Boss, Theorist, Carnegie Institute of Washington: Part 1

Dr. Boss explains the good-news/bad-news results of two teams' research into planet formation in the Orion Nebula.

Interview with Dr. Alan Boss, Theorist, Carnegie Institute of Washington: Part 2

Dr. Boss talks about his own reaction to the new Hubble results from Orion.