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Credit & Copyright: Derrick Lim
Explanation:
Do you recognize this constellation?
Although it is one of the
most recognizable star groupings on the sky, Orion's icons
don't look quite as colorful to the eye as they do to
a camera.
In this 20-image digitally-composed mosaic, cool
red giant
Betelgeuse
takes on a strong orange tint as the brightest star at the upper left.
Orion's hot blue stars are numerous, with
supergiant
Rigel balancing Betelgeuse at the lower right, and
Bellatrix
at the upper right
Lined up in
Orion's belt are three stars
all about 1,500
light-years away, born from the constellation's well-studied
interstellar clouds.
Below Orion's belt a reddish and fuzzy patch that might also
look familiar -- the stellar nursery known as
Orion's Nebula.
Finally, just barely visible to the unaided eye but quite striking here by camera
is
Barnard's Loop -- a huge gaseous emission nebula surrounding Orion's Belt and
Nebula discovered over 100 years ago by the pioneering Orion photographer
E. E. Barnard.
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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
Publications with words: Orion
See also: