The Orion Nebula is such an active and brilliant hub of star formation that it can be seen with the naked eye from Earth, despite the fact that it lies 1,350 light years distant. Stretching a full 24 light years across, the nebula is nestled in the middle of Orion’s “sword.” Its relative proximity and astounding radiance have distinguished it as one of the most intensely studied astronomical objects in the sky.
Now, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has captured the “the deepest and most comprehensive view” of this iconic nebula yet, according to a statement released Tuesday morning.
Videos by VICE
With the help of the High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager (HAWK-I) infrared instrument mounted on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, ESO researchers led by Holger Drass have produced an unprecedented glimpse of the nebula’s glowing heart. The results are published in the latest edition of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and can be visually summarized by this gorgeous highlight reel of snapshots.
New ESO views of the Orion Nebula. Image: ESO/H. Drass et al
ESO also compiled several videos based on the images captured by VLT, like this dizzying “zoom in” of the nebula from a wide-field shot.
Extreme close-up of Orion Nebula. Video: ESO/H. Drass et al./N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)/M. Kornmesser. Music: Johan Monell (www.johanmonell.com)/YouTube
The ESO team released this comparison of visible light images of nebulaic regions against HAWK-I’s infrared images.
Contrast between visible and infrared light images. Video: ESO/H. Drass/Igor Chekalin. Music: Johan B. Monell (www.johanmonell.com)/YouTube
The crossfade approach highlights how different wavelengths can provide complementary views of star formation processes. Where visible light captures bright stars and explosive supernovae, infrared allows scientists to peer past the luminous glare to glimpse fainter objects like brown dwarfs, which are curious objects classed between giant planets and dwarf stars.
To that point, one of the biggest discoveries here is that low-mass objects like brown dwarfs appear to be much more common in the Orion Nebula than previously estimated. HAWK-I unveiled about ten times as many small, dim objects than were known prior to the study.
Not only does this upend assumptions about the variety of objects’ masses within the nebula, it also suggests that there might be an abundance of planets lurking in this famous stellar nursery. At the moment, astronomers don’t have access to the kind of resolution required to root out smaller worlds. But fortunately, that might change once ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)—with its enormous 39.3-meter primary mirror—comes online in the 2020s.
“Our result feels to me like a glimpse into a new era of planet and star formation science,” Drass said in a statement. “The huge number of free-floating planets at our current observational limit is giving me hope that we will discover a wealth of smaller Earth-sized planets with the E-ELT.”
