The Euclid space telescope has discovered seven more rogue planets, shining a light on the dark and lonely worlds floating freely through the universe untethered to any star.
Astronomy
May 29, 2024
0
126
Star and planet formation is a messy affair. It starts with the gravitational collapse of a gigantic cloud of gas and dust, which simultaneously produces massive stars, whose intense radiation field creates a harsh environment, ...
Astronomy
May 14, 2024
0
87
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show a part of the iconic nebula ...
Astronomy
Apr 29, 2024
0
45
How do planetary systems such as the solar system form? To find out, CNRS scientists taking part in an international research team studied a stellar nursery, the Orion Nebula, using the James Webb Space Telescope. By observing ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 29, 2024
0
120
In our most basic understanding of our solar system, planets are drawn into the orbit of our massive star, the sun. But what happens to planet-sized objects that don't have a star? A team of astronomers studying Jupiter-mass ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 13, 2024
0
172
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is already making great strides in helping us to unravel the mysteries of the universe. Earlier this year, hundreds of rogue planets were discovered in the Orion Nebula. The real surprise ...
Planetary Sciences
Dec 18, 2023
0
35
Two galaxies in the early universe, which contain extremely productive star factories, have been studied by a team of scientists led by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. Using powerful telescopes to split the galaxies' ...
Astronomy
Dec 14, 2023
1
117
The Orion Nebula is a favorite among stargazers. It's a giant stellar nebula out of which, hot young stars are forming. Telescopically to the eye it appears as a gray/green haze of wonderment but cameras reveal the true glory ...
Astronomy
Nov 27, 2023
0
46
New images of the Orion Nebula from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have been included in ESA's ESASky application, which has a user-friendly interface to visualize and download astronomical data.
Astronomy
Oct 3, 2023
0
58
The bright variable star V 372 Orionis takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which has also captured a smaller companion star in the upper left of this image. Both stars lie in the Orion ...
Astronomy
Jan 27, 2023
0
43
The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated south[b] of Orion's Belt. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344±20 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. Older texts frequently referred to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula. Yet older, astrological texts refer to it as Ensis (Latin for "sword"), which was also the name given to the star Eta Orionis, which can be seen close to the nebula from Earth.
The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky, and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have directly observed protoplanetary disks, brown dwarfs, intense and turbulent motions of the gas, and the photo-ionizing effects of massive nearby stars in the nebula. There are also supersonic "bullets" of gas piercing the dense hydrogen clouds of the Orion Nebula. Each bullet is ten times the diameter of Pluto's orbit and tipped with iron atoms glowing bright blue. They were probably formed one thousand years ago from an unknown violent event.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
