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Orion Bar (Hubble)

Telescope image showing a cloudy mass of various colors and brightness, a number of bright white foreground stars, and many red star-like objects in the background.

The Orion Bar is a diagonal, ridge-like feature of gas and dust in the lower left quadrant of this HUBBLE image of the Orion Nebula. Sculpted by the intense radiation from nearby hot, young stars, the Orion Bar at first glance appears to be shaped like a bar. It is probably prototypical of a photodissociation region, or PDR.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    05h 35m 17.0s
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -5° 23' 27.99"
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Orion
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    The distance to the Orion Nebula is 1,500 light-years (460 parsecs).
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    The image is 7.9 arcminutes (3.4 light-years or 1.1 parsecs) wide.

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    The Hubble image was created from HST data from proposal 10246 and 13826 (M. Robberto STScI/ESA).

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    HST>ACS/WFC, HST>WFC3/IR
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    Oct. 2004 – Apr. 2005 (ACS), and Feb. 2015 – Oct. 2015 (WFC3/IR)
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    ACS/WFC: F435W (B), F555W (V), and F775W (i) WFC3/IR: F139M
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Orion Nebula
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Emission Nebula
  • Release Date
    May 19, 2021
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb to Study How Massive Stars’ Blasts of Radiation Influence Their Environments
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team, Massimo Robberto (STScI, ESA); Image Processing: Zoltan Levay (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Print), 4699 × 3132
    tif (42.14 MB)
  • Full Res (For Display), 4699 × 3132
    png (13.47 MB)
  • 2000 × 1333
    png (2.8 MB)
Telescope image showing a cloudy mass of various colors and brightness, a number of bright white foreground stars, and many red star-like objects in the background.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

This image is a composite mosaic of many separate exposures made by the ACS and WFC3 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope using several different filters isolating the light of specific elements or of specific broad wavelength ranges. The color arises by assigning different hues (colors), to each monochromatic image. In this case, the colors are: Blue: F435W (B) Cyan: F555W (V) Yellow: F775W (i) Red: F139M

Related Images & Videos

The main image, labeled "A," takes up almost the entire frame and shows a stellar nursery within the Orion Nebula, a region filled with gas, dust, and massive, young stars. The area is clouded with orange, gray, and blue-green dust and gas. It is punctuated with bright pink and orange clusters of massive, young stars. The main image is overlaid with a small white box toward the left, which connects to a box labeled "B" toward the top right. Box B illustrates a massive star-forming region whose blasts of ultraviolet radiation are affecting a photodissociation region. A small white box highlights an area within Box B, which connects to a box labeled "C" in the bottom right. Box C zooms in on a photodissociation region to depict its four distinct zones. Select View Description for more details.

Anatomy of a Photodissociation Region

This graphic depicts the stratified nature of a photodissociation region (PDR) such as the Orion Bar. Once thought to be homogenous areas of warm gas and dust, PDRs are now known to contain complex structure and four distinct zones. The box at the left shows a portion of the...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Science Credit

NASA, ESA, Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team, Massimo Robberto (STScI, ESA)

Image Processing Credit

Zoltan Levay (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

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