#The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex

[dopescissorscashwagon]

"Questions" The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.

Taken from a remote part of New Zealand's Southern Alps.

📸 by Paul Wilson @paulwilsonimage

[silvereyedowl]

[source]

Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula

Credits: Star Shadows Remote Observatory

[garyeason]

Two striking areas of nebulosity in the Orion molecular cloud complex. The Flame Nebula is a bright area of glowing hydrogen overlaid with clouds of dark dust and gas. The distinctive Horsehead comprises dark areas of dust silhouetted by the light from stars behind it. To the lower left of it is a reflection nebula, NGC 2023. The most brilliant star is Alnitak, one of the three that make up Orion's Belt.

[spacevoyagerx]

HH 45

HH 45 is a region within the Running Man Nebula, which is part of the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.

The Running Man Nebula, also known as NGC 1977, is a reflection nebula located in the constellation Orion. It gets its name from its appearance, which resembles a running figure.

HH 45 specifically refers to a Herbig-Haro object, which is a type of astronomical object formed by the interaction of a young stellar object (like a protostar) with the surrounding gas and dust.

Credits: NASA, ESA, and J. Bally (University of Colorado at Boulder); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

[spacewonder19]

Orion molecular cloud complex © Michele Guzzini

[silvereyedowl]

(source: 1, 2)

Celestial Lightsaber

[apod]

2024 September 24

NGC 6727: The Rampaging Baboon Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Alpha Zhang & Ting Yu

Explanation: This dusty region is forming stars. Part of a sprawling molecular cloud complex that resembles, to some, a rampaging baboon, the region is a relatively close by 500 light-years away toward the constellation Corona Australis. That's about one third the distance of the more famous stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula. Mixed with bright nebulosities, the brown dust clouds effectively block light from more distant background stars in the Milky Way and obscure from view embedded stars still in the process of formation. The eyes of the dust creature in the featured image are actually blue reflection nebulas cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, 6729, and IC 4812, while the red mouth glows with light emitted by hydrogen gas. Just to the upper left of the baboon's head is NGC 6723, a whole globular cluster of stars nearly 30,000 light years in the distance.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240924.html

[doublestarphotography]

Alnitak's Treasures

Alnitak, the lower left star in the belt of Orion the Hunter, is surrounded by several prominent nebulas that are part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a massive star-forming region approximately 1,350 light-years from Earth. These nebulas include:

Located near Alnitak, the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) is a bright emission nebula. The ultraviolet radiation from Alnitak ionizes hydrogen gas, causing it to emit light. Dark dust lanes cross its bright central region, creating a fiery appearance.

IC 434 is the bright emission nebula that serves as the backdrop for the Horsehead Nebula. Its reddish glow is due to hydrogen gas being excited by the radiation from nearby stars, including Alnitak.

Situated to the right (in this image) Alnitak, the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) is a dark nebula. It is a cloud of dust and gas that appears silhouetted against the bright emission nebula IC 434 that lies behind it.

Located near the Horsehead Nebula, is the bright reflection nebula NGC 2023. It is illuminated by the star HD 37903 and is one of the brightest reflection nebulas in the sky. It features a combination of molecular clouds and photodissociation regions.

These nebulas are intricately linked, forming part of the dynamic and visually stunning Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.

©DoubleStar Photography

[quiltofstars]

The Orion Nebula, M42 // Colm O'Dwyer

In this deeper image of the Orion Nebula, you can more easily see the surrounding gas and dust beyond the bright emission nebula. Indeed, the Orion Nebula is part of the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex. This complex is a star-forming region and is only about 12 million years old. Many nebulae, aside from the Orion Nebula, are part of this star-forming complex.

[aspaceinthecosmos]

TRICK OR TREAT !!!

happy halloween! you get the orion molecular cloud complex!

[talonabraxas]

Stars of Orion Talon Abraxas

Orion’s Belt consists of three exceptionally hot and massive blue stars, Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. The stars are evenly spaced and form a more or less straight line, which makes them easy to identify. Two of the three stars are supergiants.

The stars formed in the same molecular cloud and are roughly the same age. Alnitak and Mintaka, the leftmost and rightmost stars of Orion’s Belt, lie at a similar distance, about 1,200 light-years from the Sun, while Alnilam, the central star of the Belt, is much more distant. It lies approximately 2,000 light-years away. This means that, even though Alnitak and Mintaka appear closer to Alnilam in the sky, they are in fact closer to each other.

The three stars are part of the Orion OB1b subgroup of the Orion OB1 association. They were formed in the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, the nearest massive star-forming region to Earth.

alnilam,alnitak and mintaka

Alnitak

Alnitak, Zeta Orionis (ζ Ori), is the leftmost star of Orion’s Belt. It is the primary star in a triple star system located approximately 1,260 light-years away.

The three components of the Zeta Orionis system are hot, luminous blue O- and B-type stars. They have a combined apparent magnitude of 1.77. The individual components shine at magnitudes 2.08, 4.28, and 4.01.

The primary component, Zeta Orionis Aa, is formally known as Alnitak. The name comes from the Arabic word an-niṭāq, meaning “girdle.” It was historically also spelled Al Nitak or Alnitah.

Alnitak is a hot blue supergiant of the spectral type O9.5Iab. It has a mass 33 times that of the Sun and a radius 20 times solar. With an effective temperature of about 29,500 K, it shines with 250,000 solar luminosities. The star’s estimated age is only 6.4 million years.

Alnitak is the fifth brightest star in Orion and the 31st brightest star in the sky. It is slightly fainter than its Orion’s Belt neighbour Alnilam, but it outshines Mintaka.

Alnitak is the brightest O-type star in the sky. O-type stars are the hottest, bluest, and most massive types of stars, as well as the most short-lived. Because of their high mass, they burn through their supply of hydrogen faster than Sun-like stars. Even though it has only a fraction of the Sun’s age, Alnitak is already in the final stages of its life cycle. When it reaches the end, it will go out as a spectacular supernova.

Alnitak forms a close binary star system with a blue subgiant with the stellar classification B1IV. The binary star is sometimes referred to as Alnitak A.

The secondary component, Zeta Orionis Ab (Alnitak Ab), is not as evolved, but it has also come to the end of its main sequence lifetime. The star was only discovered in 1998. With a mass 14 times that of the Sun, it is also a supernova candidate. It has a radius 7.2 times solar and is 32,000 times more luminous than the Sun, with a surface temperature of 29,000 K. Alnitak Ab is a little older than its more massive companion, with an estimated age of 7.2 million years.

Alnitak Aa and Alnitak Ab orbit each other with a period of 2,687.3 days. They are separated by only 35.9 milliarcseconds, corresponding to a physical distance of only 11 astronomical units (Earth-Sun distances). The secondary component cannot be resolved visually even in the largest of telescopes. It can only be detected interferometrically and spectroscopically.

The third component, Zeta Orionis B, orbits the main pair with a period 1,508.6 years at a separation of 2.728 arcseconds. It is a blue giant star of the spectral type B0III.

There is a 9th magnitude star, sometimes called Alnitak C, that appears in the same line of sight. However, it is unclear whether it is physically related to the system or just an optical companion.

Photo taken by Rogelio Bernal Andreo in October 2010 of the Orion constellation showing the surrounding nebulae of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Also captured is the red supergiant Betelgeuse (top left) and the famous Belt of Orion composed of the OB stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. To the bottom right is the star Rigel. The red crescent shape is Barnard’s Loop. The photograph appeared as the Astronomy Picture of the Day on October 23, 2010. Image: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Alnilam

Alnilam, Epsilon Orionis (ε Ori), is the middle star of Orion’s Belt. It is a single star located approximately 2,000 light-years away. It has the stellar classification B0 Ia, indicating a luminous blue supergiant.

Even though Alnilam is the most distant of the three stars, it appears the brightest because it is the most massive and therefore the most intrinsically luminous of the Belt stars. Shining at magnitude 1.69, Alnilam is the fourth brightest star in Orion and the 29th-brightest star in the sky. Among the 30 brightest stars, only Deneb is more distant. The luminary of Cygnus lies 2,615 light-years away.

Alnilam and Deneb (Alpha Cygni) belong to the same class of variable stars, the Alpha Cygni variables. These are A- and B-type supergiant stars that experience non-radial pulsations. Some parts of their surfaces are contracting while others simultaneously expand. The pulsations cause the brightness to vary by about 0.1 magnitudes. Alnilam’s brightness has been observed to vary from magnitude 1.64 to 1.74.

The star’s spectrum also varies, possibly because of the dramatic mass loss that it is experiencing. Alnilam is losing mass about 20 million times more rapidly than the Sun. The mass loss is caused by the strong stellar winds that may reach up to 2,000 km/s.

The name Alnilam is derived from the Arabic al-niẓām, meaning “the string (of pearls).” It was historically also spelled Alnihan and Alnitam. The name may be related to the word nilam, meaning “sapphire.”

Alnilam has between 40 and 44 times the mass of the Sun and a radius of 32.4 solar radii. With an effective temperature of 27,500 K, it is 537,000 times more luminous than the Sun. It has an estimated age of 5.7 million years.

Even though it is a young star, Alnilam is already approaching the end of its life. It may evolve into a red supergiant more luminous than Betelgeuse over the next million years and will ultimately go out as a supernova.

Mintaka

Mintaka, Delta Orionis (δ Ori), is the rightmost star of Orion’s Belt (leftmost when seen from the southern hemisphere). With an apparent magnitude of 2.23, it is the seventh brightest star in Orion and the 73rd brightest star in the sky. It is the faintest star of Orion’s Belt and the only one that is not a supergiant.

The name Mintaka is derived from the Arabic manṭaqa, meaning “belt.”

Mintaka is the primary component in a star system located approximately 1,200 light-years away. It is a hot blue bright giant of the spectral type O9.5II. The star is a supernova candidate with a mass 24 times that of the Sun. It has a radius of 16.5 solar radii and a luminosity 190,000 times that of the Sun.

The primary component (Delta Ori Aa1) is part of a triple star system that also contains a hot blue B-type main sequence star (Delta Ori Aa2) and a B-type subgiant star (Delta Ori Ab). The closer companion, Delta Orionis Aa2, has a mass of 8.4 solar masses and a radius 6.5 times that of the Sun. With an effective temperature of about 25,600 K, it shines with 16,000 solar luminosities.

Delta Orionis Ab has a mass 22.5 times that of the Sun and a radius of 10.4 solar radii. It is 63,000 times more luminous than the Sun with a surface temperature of 28,400 K. It is separated by 0.26 arcseconds from the main pair and orbits the two stars with a period of 400 years or more.

All three stars are exceptionally fast spinners, with projected rotational velocities of 130 km/s (Mintaka), 150 km/s (Delta Ori Aa2), and 220 km/s (Delta Ori Ab).

Mintaka and Delta Ori Aa2 orbit each other with a period of 5.732436 days. The system is classified as an eclipsing binary star. The two stars periodically eclipse each other as they orbit, causing the system’s brightness to decrease. When the primary component eclipses the secondary, the brightness drops from magnitude 2.23 to 2.29, and when the primary star is eclipsed by the secondary, the brightness decreases to magnitude 2.35.

A fourth component, Delta Orionis B, is a 14th-magnitude star that may be related to the system, but its properties are not understood well enough to confirm this.

Delta Orionis C, catalogued as HD 36485, is another hot B-type main sequence star. It shines at magnitude 6.85 and consists of a spectroscopic binary pair. The two components orbit each other with a period of about 30 days.

[klimkovsky]

The Great Orion Nebula

The Great Orion Nebula, also known as Messier 42 (M42) or NGC 1976, is one of the most spectacular and well-studied star-forming regions in our sky. Here are some key points about this celestial marvel:

Location and Visibility: It's located in the constellation of Orion, specifically in the sword of Orion, below Orion's Belt. It's visible to the naked eye as a fuzzy patch, but binoculars or a small telescope reveal its intricate beauty.

Distance: The nebula is approximately 1,344 light-years from Earth. This distance means we're looking back in time when we observe it, seeing it as it was over 1,300 years ago.

Structure: The Great Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of gas and dust where stars are born. It's part of a larger complex known as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. M42 itself spans about 24 light-years across. The nebula's core is illuminated by a cluster of young, hot, massive stars known as the Trapezium Cluster, which lights up the surrounding gas, making it glow.

Star Formation: This region is a stellar nursery, where new stars are still forming. The nebula contains thousands of young stars, many of which are hidden by the dense dust clouds but can be detected in infrared light. The process of star formation here includes the collapse of gas and dust into protostars, which then evolve into main-sequence stars.

Historical Observations: The nebula has been known since antiquity, but it wasn't until the invention of the telescope that its nature was better understood. Galileo was one of the first to observe it through a telescope in 1610, describing it as a bright patch.

Scientific Importance: Studying the Great Orion Nebula helps astronomers understand star formation, the life cycles of stars, and the chemistry of interstellar space. It's a prime example for studying how solar systems like ours might have formed.

Aesthetic: Photographically, the Great Orion Nebula is one of the most photographed objects in the sky due to its beauty and detail. It shows off vibrant colors from hydrogen (red), oxygen (blue), and sulfur (green), among other elements, when viewed through appropriate filters.

Grok AI

This publication is an example of how Grok AI can briefly and succinctly tell about popular astronomical objects. But his story requires at least one clarification: Galileo Galilei really looked through a telescope to where the Orion Nebula is located, but he did not notice the nebula - the optics of his telescope were too weak for such observations - not high-aperture. But he noted the triplicity of the star Theta Orionis, located in the very center of the nebula. Now we know that this star system has at least 16 components and is a small open star cluster.

The ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome also did not know about the Orion Nebula. But the Maya Indians knew about it in the era of antiquity (although this is only an assumption based on the study of Myths). The first European who actually saw the Orion Nebula was Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. This happened at the very end of 1610.

And finally, a short video based on an amateur astrophoto of the Orion Nebula taken by Lisa Bromfield:

[silvereyedowl]

[source]

Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka

Credits: Mohammad Nouroozi

[tatmanblue]

Euclid’s view of the Horsehead Nebula by European Space Agency Via Flickr: Euclid shows us a spectacularly panoramic and detailed view of the Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33 and part of the constellation Orion. At approximately 1375 light-years away, the Horsehead – visible as a dark cloud shaped like a horse’s head – is the closest giant star-forming region to Earth. It sits just to the south of star Alnitak, the easternmost of Orion’s famous three-star belt, and is part of the vast Orion molecular cloud. Many other telescopes have taken images of the Horsehead Nebula, but none of them are able to create such a sharp and wide view as Euclid can with just one observation. Euclid captured this image of the Horsehead in about one hour, which showcases the mission's ability to very quickly image an unprecedented area of the sky in high detail. In Euclid’s new observation of this stellar nursery, scientists hope to find many dim and previously unseen Jupiter-mass planets in their celestial infancy, as well as young brown dwarfs and baby stars. “We are particularly interested in this region, because star formation is taking place in very special conditions,” explains Eduardo Martin Guerrero de Escalante of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Tenerife and a legacy scientist for Euclid. These special conditions are caused by radiation coming from the very bright star Sigma Orionis, which is located above the Horsehead, just outside Euclid’s field-of-view (the star is so bright that the telescope would see nothing else if it pointed directly towards it). Ultraviolet radiation from Sigma Orionis causes the clouds behind the Horsehead to glow, while the thick clouds of the Horsehead itself block light from directly behind it; this makes the head look dark. The nebula itself is made up largely of cold molecular hydrogen, which gives off very little heat and no light. Astronomers study the differences in the conditions for star formation between the dark and bright clouds. The star Sigma Orionis itself belongs to a group of more than a hundred stars, called an open cluster. However, astronomers don’t have the full picture of all the stars belonging to the cluster. “Gaia has revealed many new members, but we already see new candidate stars, brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects in this Euclid image, so we hope that Euclid will give us a more complete picture,” adds Eduardo. The data in this image were taken in about one hour of observation. This colour image was obtained by combining VIS data and NISP photometry in Y and H bands; its size is 8800 x 8800 pixels. VIS and NISP enable observing astronomical sources in four different wavelength ranges. Aesthetics choices led to the selection of three out of these four bands to be cast onto the traditional Red-Green-Blue colour channels used to represent images on our digital screens (RGB). The blue, green, red channels capture the Universe seen by Euclid around the wavelength 0.7, 1.1, and 1.7 micron respectively. This gives Euclid a distinctive colour palette: hot stars have a white-blue hue, excited hydrogen gas appears in the blue channel, and regions rich in dust and molecular gas have a clear red hue. Distant redshifted background galaxies appear very red. In the image, the stars have six prominent spikes due to how light interacts with the optical system of the telescope in the process of diffraction. Another signature of Euclid special optics is the presence of a few, very faint and small round regions of a fuzzy blue colour. These are normal artefacts of complex optical systems, so-called ‘optical ghost’; easily identifiable during data analysis, they do not cause any problem for the science goals. The cutout from the full view of the Horsehead Nebula is at the high resolution of the VIS instrument. This is nine times better than the definition of NISP that was selected for the full view; this was done for the practical reason of limiting the format of the full image to a manageable size for downloading. The cutout fully showcases the power of Euclid in obtaining extremely sharp images over a large region of the sky in one single pointing. Although this image represents only a small part of the entire colour view, the same quality as shown here is available over the full field. The full view of the Horsehead Nebula at the highest definition can be explored on ESASky. [Image description] This square astronomical image is divided horizontally by a waving line between a white-orange cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively blue-purple-pink upper portion. From the nebula in the bottom half of the image, an orange cloud shaped like a horsehead sticks out. In the bottom left of the image, a white round glow is visible. The clouds from the bottom half of the image shine purple/blue light into the upper half. The top of the image shows the black expanse of space. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing stars of varying sizes and colours. Blue stars are younger and red stars are older. Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

[spacepiratenemo]

#mochi1_kdtiys !!! Imma post this now, because here in Germany it's early morning and Mochi sure ain't awake yet, so she check this out when she wakes up ❤💙💜

I had a lot of fun doing this DTIYS, cuz that stuff right there is right up my alley. It's my drugs, my essence and drawing dear Meissa, head-star of Orion, one of my favourite constellations is an honour 😍

I hope I could do Meissa justice and the holo-effect is just right ^^ And ofc, I had to add the actual Orion Constellation as a detail. Meissa be creating stars like a space goddess 😘

Some space facts: It's actually a binary system; classified as an O8 III star, indicating it is an O-type star with giant luminosity, approx. 1100 LY from Earth. Lambda Orionis Ring or the Meissa Ring is also a large molecular cloud complex that is also an H II region, showing active formation of new stars. So, Meissa creating new stars here, ain't even wrong 👽🖤

Meissa is by @mochigyun 🤍 Art by me 🖤

[joshuaboakley]

This dusty region is forming stars. Part of a sprawling molecular cloud complex that resembles, to some, a rampaging baboon, the region is a relatively close by 500 light-years away toward the constellation Corona Australis. That’s about one third the distance of the more famous stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula. Mixed with bright nebulosities, the brown dust clouds effectively block…