The Swan Nebula Star-forming Region | ESO

The Swan Nebula Star-forming Region | ESO

The first released VLT Survey Telescope (VST) image shows the spectacular star-forming region Messier 17, also known as the Swan Nebula, as it has never been seen before. This vast region of gas, dust and hot young stars lies in the heart of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). The VST field of view is so large that the entire nebula, including its fainter outer parts, is captured—and retains its superb sharpness across the entire image. The data were processed using the Astro-WISE software system developed by E.A. Valentijn and collaborators at Groningen and elsewhere.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/INAF-VST/OmegaCAM

Acknowledgement: OmegaCen/Astro-WISE/Kapteyn Institute

Release Date: June 8, 2011

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The Swan Nebula's Smoky Core | ESO

The Swan Nebula's Smoky Core | ESO

This image of the Swan Nebula (Messier 17), captured by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT), is one of the sharpest of this object ever taken from the ground. It shows the dusty, rosy central parts of the famous star-forming region in fine detail.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: January 4, 2012

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The Swan Nebula | European Southern Observatory

Three-color composite image of the Swan Nebula (Messier 17, or NGC 6618), based on images obtained with the EMMI instrument on the ESO 3.58-meter New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory. North is down and East is to the right in the image. It spans an angle equal to about one third the diameter of the Full Moon, corresponding to about 15 light-years at the distance of the Omega Nebula. The three filters used are B (blue), V ("visual", or green) and R (red).

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: July 7, 2009

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The Swan Nebula (wide view) | Hubble

The Swan Nebula (wide view) | Hubble

Peering into a celestial maternity ward called the Omega Nebula or M17, images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope revealed a watercolor fantasy-world of glowing gases, where stars and perhaps embryonic planetary systems are forming.

Distance: 5,500 light years

Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO), M.Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA

The ACS Science Team: H. Ford, G. Illingworth, M. Clampin, G. Hartig, T. Allen, K. Anderson, F. Bartko, N. Benitez, J. Blakeslee, R. Bouwens, T. Broadhurst, R. Brown, C. Burrows, D. Campbell, E. Cheng, N. Cross, P. Feldman, M. Franx, D. Golimowski, C. Gronwall, R. Kimble, J. Krist, M. Lesser, D. Magee, A. Martel, W. J. McCann, G. Meurer, G. Miley, M. Postman, P. Rosati, M. Sirianni, W. Sparks, P. Sullivan, H. Tran, Z. Tsvetanov, R. White, and R. Woodruff.

Release Date: April 30, 2002

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The Swan Nebula: Where Stars Are Born | Hubble

The Swan Nebula: Where Stars Are Born | Hubble

A watercolor fantasyland? No. It's actually a photograph of the center of the Swan Nebula, or M17, a hotbed of newly born stars wrapped in colorful blankets of glowing gas and cradled in an enormous cold, dark hydrogen cloud. This stunning picture was taken by the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope.

The region of the nebula shown in this picture is about 3,500 times wider than our Solar System. The area also represents about 60 percent of the total view captured by ACS. The nebula resides 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

Like its famous cousin in Orion, the Swan Nebula is illuminated by ultraviolet radiation from young, massive stars—each about six times hotter and 30 times more massive than the Sun—located just beyond the upper right corner of the image. The powerful radiation from these stars evaporates and erodes the dense cloud of cold gas within which the stars formed. The blistered walls of the hollow cloud shine primarily in the blue, green, and red light emitted by excited atoms of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur. Particularly striking is the rose-like feature, seen to the right of center, which glows in the red light emitted by hydrogen and sulphur.

As the infant stars evaporate the surrounding cloud, they expose dense pockets of gas that may contain developing stars. Because these dense pockets are more resistant to the withering radiation than the surrounding cloud, they appear as sculptures in the walls of the cloud or as isolated islands in a sea of glowing gas. One isolated pocket is seen at the center of the brightest region of the nebula and is about 10 times larger than our Solar System. Other dense pockets of gas have formed the remarkable feature jutting inward from the left edge of the image, which resembles the famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion.

The ACS made this observation on April 1-2, 2002. The color image is constructed from four separate images taken in these filters: blue, near infrared, hydrogen alpha, and doubly ionized oxygen.

Credit: NASA, Holland Ford (JHU), the ACS Science Team and ESA

Release Date: April 30, 2002

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #SwanNebula #M17 #Sagittarius #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Orion in Miniature: Messier 43 | Hubble

Orion in Miniature: Messier 43 | Hubble

A massive star is illuminating this small region, called Messier 43 (M43), and sculpting the landscape of dust and gas. Astronomers call the area a miniature Orion Nebula because of its small size and the single star that is shaping it. The Orion Nebula itself is much larger and has four hefty stars that are carving the dust-and-gas terrain. The distance to the Orion Nebula is 1,500 light-years (460 parsecs).

Technical details:

This image is a composite mosaic of many separate exposures made by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's La Silla 2.2 meter telescope using several different filters isolating the light of specific elements or of specific broad wavelength ranges. The color arises by assigning different hues (colors), to each monochromatic image. In this case, the colors are:

Blue: ACS F435W (B) + ESO BB#B/99_ESO842 B

Green: ACS F555W (V) + ESO NB#OIII/8_ESO859 [O III]

Red-orange: ACS F658N (Halpha)

Red: ACS F775W (i) + F850LP (z) + ESO NB#Halpha/7_ESO856 + ESO NB#SIIr/8_ESO857 [S II]

Credits: NASA, European Space Agency, ESO, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

Release Date: January 11, 2006

#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #Messier43 #DeMairansNebula #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Orion’s Lesser-known Nebula Takes Center Stage: Messier 43 | Hubble

Orion’s Lesser-known Nebula Takes Center Stage: Messier 43 | Hubble

The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has taken a close-up view of an outer part of the Orion Nebula’s little brother, Messier 43. This nebula, which is sometimes referred to as De Mairan’s Nebula after its discoverer, is separated from the famous Orion Nebula (Messier 42) by only a dark lane of dust. Both nebulae are part of the massive stellar nursery called the Orion molecular cloud complex, which includes several other nebulae, such as the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) and the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024).

The Orion molecular cloud complex is about 1,400 light-years away, making it one of the closest massive star formation regions to Earth. Hubble has therefore studied this extraordinary region extensively over the past two decades, monitoring how stellar winds sculpt the clouds of gas, studying young stars and their surroundings and discovering many elusive objects, such as brown dwarf stars.

This view shows several of the brilliant hot young stars in this less-studied region and it also reveals many of the curious features around even younger stars that are still cocooned by dust.

This picture was created from images taken using the Wide Field Channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images through yellow (F555W, colored blue) and near-infrared (F814W, colored red) filters were combined. The exposure times were 1000 s per filter and the field of view is about 3.3 arcminutes across.

Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA

Release Date: February 28, 2011

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #Messier43 #DeMairansNebula #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

The Horsehead Nebula: Visible and Infrared Views | Hubble

The Horsehead Nebula: Visible and Infrared Views | Hubble

This image shows two different views of the Horsehead Nebula. On the right is a view of the nebula in visible light, taken using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The image on the left shows the nebula in the infrared, using observations from Hubble’s high-resolution Wide Field Camera 3.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI); ESO

Release Date: April 19, 2013

#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #HorseHeadNebula #Barnard33 #Infrared #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #AURA #UnitedStates #Europe #Infographic #STEM #Education

The Horsehead Nebula (wide view) | Rancho Del Sol Observatory

The Horsehead Nebula (wide view) | Rancho Del Sol Observatory

The Horsehead Nebula and NGC 2023 in Orion (B33). B33-1 is the little yellow patch on the brow on the "head" area. The red knots below the neck area are known as Herbig-Haro objects and are believed to be stars in the early stages of formation.

NGC 2023 is an emission and reflection nebula in the equatorial constellation of Orion. It was discovered by the German-born astronomer William Herschel on January 6, 1785. This reflection nebula is one of the largest in the Earth's night sky.

Credit & Copyright: Ken Crawford 

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Nebula #HorseheadNebula #Barnard33 #NGC2023 #HerbigHaroObjects #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #RanchoDelSolObservatory #Telescope #Astrophotographer #Astronomer #KenCrawford #CitizenScience #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

The Horsehead Nebula | European Southern Observatory

The Horsehead Nebula | European Southern Observatory

A reproduction of a composite color image of the Horsehead Nebula and its immediate surroundings. It is based on three exposures in the visual part of the spectrum with the FORS2 multi-mode instrument at the 8.2-m KUEYEN telescope, part of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT), at Paranal. It was produced from three images, obtained on February 1, 2000, with the FORS2 multi-mode instrument at the 8.2-m KUEYEN Unit Telescope and extracted from the VLT Science Archive Facility. 

The frames were obtained in the B-band (600 sec exposure; wavelength 429 nm; FWHM 88 nm; here rendered as blue), V-band (300 sec; 554 nm; 112 nm; green) and R-band (120 sec; 655 nm; 165 nm; red). The original pixel size is 0.2 arcsec. The photo shows the full field recorded in all three colors, approximately 6.5 x 6.7 arcmin 2 . The seeing was about 0.75 arcsec.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: January 25, 2002

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Nebula #HorseheadNebula #Barnard33 #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #Telescope #ParanalObservatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #Europe #STEM #Education

The Horshead Nebula | SSO Callisto Telescope

The Horshead Nebula | SSO Callisto Telescope

This first light image from the Callisto Telescope at the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory (SSO) shows the famous Horsehead Nebula. First light for a newly commissioned telescope is a tremendously exciting time, and usually well-known astronomical objects such as this are captured to celebrate a new telescope's commencing operations.

The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 422 parsecs or 1,375 light-years from Earth.

The SSO is installed at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in the vast Atacama Desert, Chile, and consists of four 1-meter planet-hunting telescopes. The project’s telescopes are named after Jupiter’s Galilean moons, and are neighbors of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and VISTA. 

SPECULOOS will focus on detecting Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby ultra-cool stars and brown dwarfs.

Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars (SPECULOOS)

Credit: SPECULOOS Team/E. Jehin/European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: December 5, 2018

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #SPECULOOS #Nebula #HorseheadNebula #Barnard33 #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #CallistoTelescope #ParanalObservatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #Europe #STEM #Education

The Horsehead Nebula: Hubble's Universe Unfiltered

The Horsehead Nebula: Hubble's Universe Unfiltered

The Horsehead Nebula is a striking, dark gas cloud just below Orion's belt. It is a favorite of both professional and amateur astronomers. However, as a dark nebula, most of its true structure is hidden from visible light observations. To celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, we revealed the considerable detail of that unseen nebular structure via an infrared portrait. The result is even more striking, and something one does not see very often—a veritable astronomical horse of a different color.

"Hubble's Universe" is a recurring broadcast from HubbleSite, online home of the Hubble Space Telescope. Astrophysicist Frank Summers takes viewers on an in-depth tour of the latest Hubble discoveries.

Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Duration: 12 minutes, 47 seconds

Release Date: September 5, 2013

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #HorseHeadNebula #Barnard33 #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #AURA #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Horsehead Nebula: Celebrating Hubble's Infrared View

The Horsehead Nebula: Celebrating Hubble's Infrared View

Hubblecast 65: This episode of the Hubblecast celebrates 23 years of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, by unveiling a beautiful and striking image of the Horsehead nebula. 

Our host Dr Joe Liske (aka Dr J) explains the secrets of nebulae, cosmic clouds of gas and dust that have been the subjects of some of Hubble's most striking astronomical images. The Horsehead nebula is one of the most distinctive, and is now shown in a whole new light thanks to a stunning new infrared image—revealing the delicate wisps of gas that are normally hidden by the thick dust that makes up the Horsehead's famous and familiar shape.

Credit: European Space Agency/Hubble

Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser

Web and technical support: Mathias Andre and Raquel Yumi Shida

Written by: Nicola Guttridge

Presented by: Joe Liske (Dr J)

Narration: Sara Mendes da Costa

Images: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI); ESO

Animations: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI); F. Summers, L. Frattare, T. Davis, Z. Levay, T. Borders, and G. Bacon (Viz 3D team, STScI)

Music: Steve Buick

Directed by: Nicola Guttridge

Cinematography: Peter Rixner (www.perix.de)

Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen

Duration: 6 minutes

Release Date: April 19, 2013

#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #HorseHeadNebula #Barnard33 #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #AURA #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #Visualization #3D #HD #Video

The Gaseous Landscape of The Horsehead Nebula (infrared) | Hubble

The Gaseous Landscape of The Horsehead Nebula (infrared) | Hubble

The Horsehead Nebula is a dark cloud of dense gas and dust located just below the belt of Orion on the sky. A visible light view shows a strong silhouette resembling the horse's head used for a knight in chess. Infrared light, however, reveals a more complex scene, as shown in this Hubble image. The warm parts of the clouds glow in infrared light, plus longer infrared wavelengths can penetrate deeper into the clouds. A dark and relatively featureless scene is revealed as a glowing gaseous landscape.

This video presents a scientific visualization of the Horsehead Nebula as seen in infrared light. To fill out the widescreen frame, the central Hubble image has been augmented by ground-based observations from the European Southern Observatory's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The three-dimensional interpretation has been sculpted to create a wispy and mountainous environment, with stars distributed in an approximate and statistical manner. The computer graphics model is intended to be scientifically reasonable, but not fully accurate. This imaginative traverse provides an inspiring spaceflight experience that brings the celestial scene to life.

Credit: Hubble Space Telescope/NASA/European Space Agency (ESA)/Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)    

Duration: 48 seconds

Release Date: March 26, 2014

#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #HorseHeadNebula #Barnard33 #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #AURA #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #Visualization #3D #HD #Video

Zooming in on The Horsehead Nebula (3D) | Hubble

Zooming in on The Horsehead Nebula (3D) | Hubble

This video zooms into part of the sky in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), showing infrared Hubble observations of the Horsehead Nebula (otherwise known as Barnard 33). The video ends on a 3D fly-through of the nebula.

The video continues with a scientific visualization of a flight into the infrared Horsehead. The computer graphics model is intended to be scientifically reasonable, but not fully accurate. 

This infrared image was released to celebrate 23 years of the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. The data in this video come from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, supplemented by ground-based observations from the European Southern Observatory's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA).

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, the Hubble Heritage Team: Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA); G. Bacon, T. Borders, L. Frattare, Z. Levay, and F. Summers (Viz 3D team, STScI); European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: April 19, 2013

#NASA #ESA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #HorseHeadNebula #Barnard33 #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #AURA #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #Visualization #3D #HD #Video

The Horsehead Nebula (infrared) | Hubble

The Horsehead Nebula (infrared) | Hubble

This Hubble image, shows part of the sky in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter). Rising like a giant seahorse from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33.

This image shows the region in infrared light, which has longer wavelengths than visible light and can pierce through the dusty material that usually obscures the nebula’s inner regions. The result is a rather ethereal and fragile-looking structure, made of delicate folds of gas—very different to the nebula’s appearance in visible light.

This image was captured and released to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 23rd year in orbit in 2013.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)

Release Date: April 19, 2013

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Hubble #Nebula #HorseHeadNebula #Barnard33 #Infrared #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #AURA #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education