Cradled in cosmic dust and
nurseries in Orion the
the edge of a giant molecular
cloud some 1,500 light-years away.
Spanning nearly 25 degrees, this breath-taking vista
stretches across the well-known constellation
from head to toe
Nebula, the closest large star
forming region, is right of center.
To its left are the
Sliding your cursor over the picture will also find
red giant Betelgeuse
at the hunter's shoulder,
bright blue Rigel
at his foot, and the glowing Lambda Orionis
nebula at the far left, near Orion's head.
Of course, the Orion Nebula and bright stars are
to see with the
unaided eye, but dust clouds and emission from the extensive
gas in this nebula-rich
are too faint and much harder to record.
In this mosaic of broadband telescopic images, additional image
data acquired with a narrow
alpha filter was used to
bring out the pervasive tendrils of energized
atomic hydrogen gas and the arc of the giant