What you see in this image is not a wildfire, but the Flame Nebula and its surroundings recorded in radio waves.The Flame Nebula is the big feature on the left half of the central, yellow rectangle. The smaller sized feature on the right is the reflection nebula NGC 2023. The Flame Nebula and its environments are moving away from us, with the red clouds in the background receding faster than the yellow ones in the foreground.The image in the rectangle is based on observations conducted with the SuperCam instrument on the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) on Chiles Chajnantor Plateau.
Orion offers you an amazing firework display screen to celebrate the holiday season and the new year in this new image from the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The “fire” you see in this holiday postcard is Orions Flame Nebula and its surroundings caught in radio waves– an image that undoubtedly does justice to the nebulas name!
The freshly processed picture of the Flame Nebula, in which smaller sized nebulae like the Horsehead Nebula likewise make a look, is based upon observations performed by former ESO astronomer Thomas Stanke and his team a few years ago. Thrilled to experiment with the then recently set up SuperCam instrument at APEX, they pointed it towards the constellation Orion. “As astronomers like to state, whenever there is a new telescope or instrument around, observe Orion: there will constantly be something interesting and brand-new to discover!” states Stanke A lots of observations and few years later on, Stanke and his team have now had their outcomes accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & & Astrophysics
. This image shows the Flame Nebula and its surroundings caught in radio waves. The image is based on observations performed with the SuperCam instrument on the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) on Chiles Chajnantor Plateau.The Flame Nebula is the large feature on the. The smaller sized function on the right is the reflection nebula NGC 2023. To the leading right of NGC 2023, the renowned Horsehead Nebula seems to emerge heroically from the “flames.” The 3 objects are part of the Orion cloud, a giant gas structure located in between 1300 and 1600 light-years away.The various colors suggest the velocity of the gas. The Flame Nebula and its surroundings are moving away from us, with the red clouds in the background receding faster than the yellow ones in the foreground.Credit: ESO/Th. Stanke.
One of the most well-known areas in the sky, Orion is house to the giant molecular clouds closest to the Sun– vast cosmic things comprised mainly of hydrogen, where new stars and planets form. These clouds lie in between 1300 and 1600 light-years away and feature the most active stellar nursery in the Solar Systems neighborhood, as well as the Flame Nebula illustrated in this image. This “emission” nebula harbors a cluster of young stars at its center that produce high-energy radiation, making the surrounding gases shine.
With such an amazing target, the group was unlikely to be dissatisfied. In addition to the Flame Nebula and its surroundings, Stanke and his collaborators had the ability to admire a wide variety of other magnificent objects. Some examples consist of the reflection nebulae Messier 78 and NGC 2071– clouds of interstellar gas and dust believed to show the light of nearby stars. The team even discovered one new nebula, a small item, remarkable in its practically completely circular look, which they called the Cow Nebula.
The Flame Nebula, caught in radio waves in this image, is the large function on the left half of the main, yellow rectangle. The smaller sized feature on the right is the reflection nebula NGC 2023. To the leading right of NGC 2023, the renowned Horsehead Nebula seems to emerge heroically from the “flames.” The 3 things become part of the Orions cloud, a giant gas structure located in between 1300 and 1600 light-years away.The different colors suggest the velocity of the gas. The Flame Nebula and its surroundings are moving far from us, with the red clouds in the background receding faster than the yellow ones in the foreground.The image in the rectangular shape is based on observations carried out with the SuperCam instrument on the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) on Chiles Chajnantor Plateau. The background image was developed from pictures in optical light forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Credit: ESO/Th. Stanke & & ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Recommendation: Davide De Martin
The observations were performed as part of the APEX Large CO Heterodyne Orion Legacy Survey (ALCOHOLS), which took a look at the radio waves released by carbon monoxide (CO) in the Orion clouds. Using this particle to probe wide areas of the sky is the main objective of SuperCam, as it permits astronomers to map large gas clouds that offer birth to brand-new stars. Unlike what the “fire” of this image might recommend, these clouds are actually cold, with temperature levels typically just a few 10s of degrees above outright zero.
Given the lots of secrets it can tell, this area of the sky has been scanned numerous times in the past at various wavelengths, each wavelength range revealing different, distinct functions of Orions molecular clouds. One example is the infrared observations performed with ESOs Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile that make up the tranquil background of this image of the Flame Nebula and its environments. Unlike noticeable light, infrared waves go through the thick clouds of interstellar dust, permitting astronomers to find stars and other things which would otherwise remain hidden.
This vacation season, bring in the new year with this spectacular multiwavelength firework reveal put on by the Orions Flame Nebula, presented by ESO!
Recommendation: “The APEX Large CO Heterodyne Orion Legacy Survey (ALCOHOLS). I. Survey overview” by Thomas Stanke, H. G. Arce, J. Bally, P. Bergman, J. Carpenter, C. J. Davis, W. Dent, J. Di Francesco, J. Eislöffel, D. Froebrich, A. Ginsburg, M. Heyer, D. Johnstone, D. Mardones, M. J. McCaughrean, S. T. Megeath, F. Nakamura, M. D. Smith, A. Stutz, K. Tatematsu, C. Walker, J. P. Williams, H. Zinnecker, B. J. Swift, C. Kulesa, B. Peters, B. Duffy, J. Kloosterman, U. A. Yildiz, J. L. Pineda, C. De Breuck and Th. Klein, Accepted, Astronomy & & Astrophysics.arXiv:2201.00463 The observations mentioned in this press release exist in a paper accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The team is made up of Th. Stanke( European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany [ESO], H. G. Arce(Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA), J. Bally (CASA, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA), P. Bergman (Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, Onsala, Sweden), J. Carpenter (Joint ALMA Observatory, Santiago, Chile [ALMA], C. J. Davis (National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA, USA), W. Dent (ALMA), J. Di Francesco (NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, Victoria, BC, Canada [HAA] and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, BC, Canada [UVic], J. Eislöffel (Thu ¨ ringer Landessternwarte, Tautenburg, Germany), D. Froebrich (School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK), A. Ginsburg (Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA), M. Heyer (Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA), D. Johnstone (HAA and UVic), D. Mardones (Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile), M. J. McCaughrean (European Space Agency, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands), S. T. Megeath (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Toledo, OH, USA), F. Nakamura (National Astronomical Observatory, Tokyo, Japan), M. D. Smith (Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK), A. Stutz (Departmento de Astronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Concepción, Chile), K. Tatematsu (Nobeyama Radio Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Nagano, Japan), C. Walker (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States [], J. P. Williams (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, HELLO THERE, USA), H. Zinnecker (Universidad Autonoma de Chile, Santiago, Chile), B. J. Swift (SO), C. Kulesa (SO), B. Peters (SO), B. Duffy (SO), J. Kloosterman (University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, IN, USA), U. A. Yildiz (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA [JPL], J. L. Pineda (JPL), C. De Breuck (ESO), and Th. Klein (European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile).
Pinnacle is a cooperation in between the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), the Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) and ESO. Operation of APEX at Chajnantor is turned over to ESO.
SuperCAM is a project by the Steward Observatory Radio Astronomy Laboratory at the University of Arizona, United States.
What you see in this photo is not a wildfire, however the Flame Nebula and its surroundings recorded in radio waves.The Flame Nebula is the large function on the left half of the central, yellow rectangular shape. The Flame Nebula and its environments are moving away from us, with the red clouds in the background declining faster than the yellow ones in the foreground.The image in the rectangle is based on observations carried out with the SuperCam instrument on the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) on Chiles Chajnantor Plateau. The “fire” you see in this holiday postcard is Orions Flame Nebula and its surroundings recorded in radio waves– an image that certainly does justice to the nebulas name! The newly processed image of the Flame Nebula, in which smaller nebulae like the Horsehead Nebula also make a look, is based on observations performed by former ESO astronomer Thomas Stanke and his team a few years back. The team even discovered one brand-new nebula, a little object, impressive in its almost perfectly circular appearance, which they called the Cow Nebula.
