I’m celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hubble’s launch to orbit by looking at some favorites that the telescope has studied. Of all the objects it has observed (literally billions of things in the sky), one of my favorites is the Orion Nebula. It’s in the constellation Orion (which is setting earlier in the April night skies). The nebula is really part of a larger collection of clouds of gas and dust called the “Orion Molecular Complex”. What we see is the most easily visible to the naked eye. And, of course, the nebula has been observed from the ground from many other facilities, too. For example, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has looked at it in radio frequencies to study other structures.
Hubble’s Orion
So, most of us have seen the Orion Nebula through Hubble’s eye. It’s got four very bright stars at its center, called “the Trapezium”. There are many other newborn stars in the region. The nebula also has proplyds. That’s short for “protoplanetary disks”. Those are young stars with cocoons of dust around them, and in which planets are likely forming. All this splendor is only 1,500 light-years away from us. That’s very close by, in cosmic terms. Almost in the galactic back yard.
Hubble’s Multi-wavelength View
Hubble has looked at the Orion Nebula in various wavelengths of light. The most revealing view one is infrared. It allows scientists’ gaze to penetrate the clouds of gas and dust that envelope some of the most interesting features.
If you could ride through the nebula in a ship equipped with infrared “eyes”, here’s what a flight through the nebula would resemble. There are what looks like ‘caves’ and ‘inlets’ carved out of the glowing clouds that make up the nebula. Those were carved out by ultraviolet radiation from hot young stars that appear blueish in this view. But, the beauty of infrared is that it shows lower-temperature objects. That includes faint stars that we wouldn’t normally see.
Hubble’s Look at Starbirth
The Orion Nebula gives us a pretty good and up-close view of starbirth. It ranges from the earliest young stellar objects to hot blue newborns. And, future solar systems that lie hidden inside the proplyds for our distant descendants to study. That makes it one of the best laboratories for astronomers to study the birth and evolution of stars and planets. It’s truly a cosmic treasure.