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Credit: Russell Croman
Explanation:
Look up into the sky tonight, and even with a good telescope
you won't come across a sight quite like this one.
It is a familiar object though, the grand stellar nursery
known as the
Orion Nebula.
But the
striking picture combines
images taken through three separate filters, each designed
to record different
emission lines - light from Sulfur,
Oxygen, and Hydrogen atoms glowing in the
tenuous nebular gas.
At such low
densities, Sulfur and Hydrogen atoms emit red colors
while Oxygen glows green.
To distinguish their contributions in the final image, Sulfur was
assigned to red, Oxygen to green, and Hydrogen to blue,
a color scheme used
in mapped-color images of other astronomical nebulae as well.
While the result is very different from what the eye
might see,
the image is still both beautiful and scientifically valuable,
tracing
elements and conditions within the nearby
star forming region.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Orion Nebula
Publications with words: Orion Nebula
See also: