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Explanation: This esthetic close-up of cosmic clouds and stellar winds features LL Orionis, interacting with the Orion Nebula flow. Adrift in Orion's stellar nursery and still in its formative years, variable star LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than the wind from our own middle-aged Sun. As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is formed, analogous to the bow wave of a boat moving through water or a plane traveling at supersonic speed. The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of center is LL Ori's cosmic bow shock, measuring about half a light-year across. The slower gas is flowing away from the Orion Nebula's hot central star cluster, the Trapezium, located off the upper left corner of the picture. In three dimensions, LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like a bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the "bottom" edge. The beautiful picture is part of a large mosaic view of the complex stellar nursery in Orion, filled with a myriad of fluid shapes associated with star formation.
News: New Horizons spacecraft
launched to Pluto.
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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: stellar wind - bow shock - Orion Nebula - emission nebula - star formation - M 42
Publications with words: stellar wind - bow shock - Orion Nebula - emission nebula - star formation - M 42
See also:
- APOD: 2024 December 17 Á Near to the Heart Nebula
- The Elephant s Trunk in Cepheus
- APOD: 2024 November 17 Á LDN 1471: A Windblown Star Cavity
- APOD: 2024 November 4 Á M42: The Great Nebula in Orion
- Phantoms in Cassiopeia
- APOD: 2024 October 22 Á M16: Pillars of Star Creation
- APOD: 2024 September 10 Á Horsehead and Orion Nebulas