| Space Art from NASA |
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| Written by Suzann Kale | |
Exotic swirls and colors paint the Orion nebula, 1,500 light-years away.
 This dazzling new image of the Orion nebula comes to us from NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes. 1,500 light-years from Earth, this nebula - a cosmic cloud containing newborn stars, gasses, winds, and dust - is part of the "Hunter" constellation, and is the brightest spot in the "Sword of Orion."
If you look at the night sky from the northern hemisphere in fall and winter (you'll need binoculars), you can see the constellation. It's made up of four massive stars, located in the center of the nebula, called the "Trapezium." In this photograph, it's the light yellow spot in the center.
What makes up the colors of this incredible "space art"? Hubble gives us an ultraviolet view, which is combined with Spitzer's infrared view. Through these "lenses", super-heated hydrogen and sulfur gasses, ultraviolet radiation, infant stars, and organic carbon-based molecules are lit and then swirled by the complex forces of stellar winds.
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posted November 9, 2006
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