X-Ray Stars Of Orion
Explanation:
The stars of Orion shine brightly
in northern winter skies where
the constellation
harbors the closest large stellar nursery,
the Great Nebula of Orion, a mere 1500 light-years away.
In fact, the apparently bright clump of stars near the center
of this Chandra
X-ray telescope picture of a portion of
the nebula are the massive stars of
the Trapezium - the
young star cluster which powers much of the nebula's
visible-light glow.
But the sheer number of other stars seen in
this X-ray image, which
spans about 10 light-years, has surprised and delighted astronomers
and
this picture was recently touted
as the richest field of X-ray sources ever recorded
in a single observation.
The picture does dramatically illustrate that
young stars are prodigious sources
of X-rays,
thought to be produced in hot
stellar coronas and
surface flares in a young star's strong magnetic field.
Our middle-aged Sun
itself was probably thousands of times
brighter in X-rays when, like
the Trapezium stars,
it was
only a few million years old.
The dark lines through the image are instrumental artifacts.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
