Posts Tagged ‘orion’
Orion In A New Light
May 10th, 2010 | 
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ESOcast 14: Orion in a New Light – VISTA exposes high-speed antics of young stars.
The Orion Nebula reveals many of its hidden secrets in a dramatic image taken by ESOs new VISTA survey telescope. VISTA — the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy — is the latest addition to ESOs Paranal Observatory. It is the largest survey telescope in the world and is dedicated to mapping the sky at infrared wavelengths.
The telescopes huge field of view can show the full splendour of the Orion Nebula and VISTAs infrared vision also allows it to peer deeply into dusty regions that are normally hidden and expose the curious behaviour of the very active young stars buried there.
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The Orion Nebula lies in the sword of the famous celestial hunter and is a favourite target both for casual sky watchers and astrophysicists alike. It is faintly visible to the unaided eye and appeared to early telescopic observers as a small cluster of blue-white stars surrounded by a mysterious grey-green mist.
The object was first described in the early seventeenth century although the identity of the discoverer is uncertain. The French comet-hunter Messier made an accurate sketch of its main features in the mid-eighteenth century and gave it the number 42 in his famous catalogue. He also allocated the number 43 to the smaller detached region just above the main part of the nebula.
Later William Herschel speculated that the nebula might be the chaotic material of future suns and astronomers have since discovered that the mist is indeed gas glowing under the fierce ultraviolet light from young hot stars that have recently formed there.
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VISTA — the Visible and Infrared Survey telescope for Astronomy — is the latest addition to ESOs Paranal Observatory. It is the largest survey telescope in the world and is dedicated to mapping the sky at infrared wavelengths. The large (4.1-metre) mirror, wide field of view and very sensitive detectors make VISTA a unique instrument. This dramatic new image of the Orion Nebula illustrates VISTAs remarkable powers.
The Orion Nebula is a vast stellar nursery lying about 1350 light-years from Earth. Although the nebula is spectacular when seen through an ordinary telescope, what can be seen using visible light is only a small part of a cloud of gas in which stars are forming.
Most of the action is deeply embedded in dust clouds and to see what is really happening astronomers need to use telescopes with detectors sensitive to the longer wavelength radiation that can penetrate the dust. VISTA has imaged the Orion Nebula at wavelengths about twice as long as can be detected by the human eye.
As in the many visible light pictures of this object, the new wide field VISTA image shows the familiar bat-like form of the nebula in the centre of the picture as well as the fascinating surrounding area.
At the very heart of this region lie the four bright stars forming the Trapezium, a group of very hot young stars pumping out fierce ultraviolet radiation that is clearing the surrounding region and making the gas glow. However, observing in the infrared allows VISTA to reveal many other young stars in this central region that cannot be seen in visible light.
Looking to the region above the centre of the picture, curious red features appear that are completely invisible except in the infrared. Many of these are very young stars that are still growing and are seen through the dusty clouds from which they form.
These youthful stars eject streams of gas with typical speeds of 700 000 km/hour and many of the red features highlight the places where these gas streams collide with the surrounding gas, causing emission from excited molecules and atoms in the gas.
There are also a few faint, red features below the Orion Nebula in the image, showing that stars form there too, but with much less vigour. These strange features are of great interest to astronomers studying the birth and youth of stars.
This new image shows the power of the VISTA telescope to image wide areas of sky quickly and deeply in the near-infrared part of the spectrum. The telescope is just starting to survey the sky and astronomers are anticipating a rich harvest of science from this unique ESO facility.
• http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1006/
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Credit: ESO. Acknowledgments: J. Emerson/VISTA. Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser. Editing: Herbert Zodet. Web and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi Shida. Written by: Eric Schwartz and Richard Hook. Narration: Dr J. Music: John Dyson (from the album darklight) and movetwo. Footage and photos: ESO. Directed by: Herbert Zodet. Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen.
• http://www.eso.org/public/
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Duration : 0:3:25
Posted in orion telescope | 
Tags: active, astronomers, astronomy, astrophysicists, cast, earth, ESO, gas, herschel, images, infrared, light, Messier, nebula, new, observatories, orion, paranal, radiation, Space, spectrum, Stars, survey, telescopes, ultraviolet, visible, vista, Young | 
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New Planetary Systems In The Orion Nebula
Hubblecast 32: Born in Beauty – Proplyds in the Orion Nebula.
Visible to the naked eye, only 1500 light-years from Earth, the great Orion Nebula has been known and revered since ancient times.
A popular target of Hubble, researchers have now identified 42 new discs within it that could be the beginnings of new planetary systems like our own.
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14-Dec-2009: A collection of 30 never-before-released images of embryonic planetary systems in the Orion Nebula are the highlight of the longest single Hubble Space telescope project ever dedicated to the topic of star and planet formation.
Also known as proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, these modest blobs surrounding baby stars are shedding light on the mechanism behind planet formation. Only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with its high resolution and sensitivity, can take such detailed pictures of circumstellar discs at optical wavelengths.
Looking like a graceful watercolour painting, the Orion Nebula is one of the most photogenic objects in space and one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s favourite targets. As newborn stars emerge from the nebula’s mixture of gas and dust, protoplanetary discs, also known as proplyds, form around them: the centre of the spinning disc heats up and becomes a new star, but remnants around the outskirts of the disc attract other bits of dust and clump together.
Proplyds are thought to be young planetary systems in the making. In an ambitious survey of the familiar nebula using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), researchers have discovered 42 protoplanetary discs.
Visible to the naked eye, the Orion Nebula has been known since ancient times, but was first described in the early 17th century by the French astronomer Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc — who is given credit for discovering it. At 1500 light-years away, the nebula, also known as Messier 42, is the closest star-forming region to Earth with stars massive enough to heat up the surrounding gas, setting it ablaze with colour, and making the region stand out to stargazers.
Learn more: http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0917.html
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Hubblecast features news and Images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
The space-based observatory is a collaboration between NASA and ESA. The observations are carried out in visible, infrared and ultraviolet light. In many ways Hubble has revolutionised modern astronomy.
The Hubble Space Telescope has made some of the most dramatic discoveries in the history of astronomy. From its vantage point 600 km above the Earth, Hubble can detect light with “eyes” five times sharper than the best ground-based telescopes and looks deep into space where some of the most profound mysteries are still buried in the mists of time.
Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre
Garching/Munich, Germany
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Dr. J is a German astronomer at the ESO. His scientific interests are in cosmology, particularly on galaxy evolution and quasars. Dr. J’s real name is Joe Liske and he has a PhD in astronomy.
• http://www.eso.org/~jliske/
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Duration : 0:6:15
Posted in orion telescope |
Tags: astronomy, bang, beauty, big, Black, born, dark, discoveries, discs, earth, energy, ESA, ESO, galaxies, herschel, holes, Hubble, Hubblecast, infrared, matter, NASA, nebula, new, observatories, orion, planetary, Planets, proplyds, protoplanetary, Space, Spitzer, Systems, telescopes, ultraviolet |
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Venus and the crescent moon/Venus through 8 inch dobsonian-6mm Orion Expanse EP
Venus and the crescent moon observed through a 6mm Orion Expanse eyepiece using an 8 inch zhumell dobsonian.
Duration : 0:1:42
Sword Of Orion
The Hidden Universe of the Spitzer Space Telescope (Episode 3): A Stellar Census of the Sword of Orion.
This is the Hidden Universe of the Spitzer Space Telescope, exploring the mysteries of infrared astronomy with your host Dr. Robert Hurt.
New images of the Orion Nebula show thousands of nascent solar systems. The Spitzer images have unsheathed the Sword of Orion and led astronomers to a treasure trove of baby stars within.
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‘The Hidden Universe’ video series showcases some of the most exciting discoveries in infrared astronomy from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Looking beyond the visible spectrum of light, Spitzer can see a whole new universe of dust and stars hidden from our Earth-bound eyes.
Orion, the hunter, is one of the best-known constellations in the sky. Hanging beneath its distinctive three belt stars is a glowing patch known as the Sword of Orion, or M42.
At a distance of about 1,300 light years, this nearby stellar nursery is easily visible to the naked eye. But for astronomers studying the Sword of Orion, visible light alone just doesnt cut it. We see only the small patches where young stars heat the surrounding gas and make it glow.
The bulk of the Orion cloud complex is a mostly dark swath of dust and gas containing the mass of about 100,000 Suns and spanning 250 light years. The infrared eye of the Spitzer Space telescope can see this dust directly and identify the vast population of infant stars buried within.
Spitzer can find young stars by detecting the infrared glow from their surrounding dusty disks. The very youngest stars are gobbling up material from their disks and growing larger. Later, the left-over disks around adolescent stars can provide the resources for building planets.
• http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
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Duration : 0:4:24
The Star Party – Sketch the Sky -Why You Really Should (Telescopes)
http://www.telescope.com How to train your brain to more clearly see objects in the sky and understand them much better: Just draw them! This is an episode of “The Star Party,” a video guide to amateur astronomy from the crew of orion telescopes & Binoculars. Visit http://www.telescope.com to find high quality products for amateur astronomers.
Duration : 0:2:8
Posted in orion telescope |
Tags: amateur, astronomy, cluster, galaxies, Galaxy, moon, nebula, orion, planet, science, Space, star, stargazing, sun, telescope, telescopes |
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The Star Party – The Stars – Special Tricks to See More (Telescopes)
http://www.telescope.com There’s an amazing range of color in the stars – from subtle to striking. Here’s how to best see distant suns. This is an episode of “The Star Party,” a video guide to amateur astronomy from the crew of orion telescopes & Binoculars. Visit http://www.telescope.com to find high quality products for amateur astronomers.
Duration : 0:3:0
Posted in orion telescope |
Tags: amateur, astronomy, cluster, galaxies, Galaxy, moon, nebula, orion, planet, science, Space, star, stargazing, sun, telescope, telescopes |
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The Star Party – Dealing with Dew: How to Keep Telescope Optics Dry
http://www.telescope.com Condensation on a telescope can ruin your date with the stars. Here’s how to prevent a good night from going bad! This is an episode of “The Star Party,” a video guide to amateur astronomy from the crew of orion telescopes & Binoculars. Visit http://www.telescope.com to find high quality products for amateur astronomers.
Duration : 0:2:43
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Tags: amateur, astronomy, cluster, galaxies, Galaxy, moon, nebula, orion, planet, science, Space, star, stargazing, sun, telescope, telescopes |
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The Star Party – How Telescopes Work – Ways to Gather Light
http://www.telescope.com Inside the optical tube with lenses and mirrors; an episode of “The Star Party,” a video guide to amateur astronomy from the crew of Orion telescopes & Binoculars. Visit http://www.telescope.com to find high quality products for amateur astronomers.
Duration : 0:2:30
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Tags: amateur, astronomy, cluster, galaxies, Galaxy, moon, nebula, orion, planet, science, Space, star, stargazing, sun, telescope, telescopes |
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The Star Party – Fascinating Objects in the Night Sky (Telescopes)
http://www.telescope.com There are a great many wonders to see in the night sky. A telescope is your magic carpet, your time machine and much more. This is an episode of “The Star Party,” a video guide to amateur astronomy from the crew of orion telescopes & Binoculars. Visit http://www.telescope.com to find high quality products for amateur astronomers.
Duration : 0:1:25
Posted in orion telescope |
Tags: amateur, astronomy, cluster, galaxies, Galaxy, moon, nebula, orion, planet, science, Space, star, stargazing, sun, telescope, telescopes |
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The Star Party – The Moon – Special Tricks to See More (Telescopes)
http://www.telescope.com How to best observe this favorite of amateur astronomers. This is an episode of “The Star Party”, a video guide to amateur astronomy from the crew of orion telescopes & Binoculars. Visit http://www.telescope.com to find high quality products for amateur astronomers.
Duration : 0:3:22
Posted in orion telescope |
Tags: amateur, astronomy, cluster, galaxies, Galaxy, moon, nebula, orion, planet, science, Space, star, stargazing, sun, telescope, telescopes |
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