by APOD Robot » Tue Dec 09, 2014 5:06 am
The Flame Nebula in Visible and Infrared
Explanation: What lights up the Flame Nebula? Fifteen hundred light years away towards the constellation of
Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark
dust lanes, appears, on the left, like a billowing fire. But
fire, the rapid acquisition of
oxygen, is not what makes this
Flame glow. Rather the bright star
Alnitak, the easternmost star in the
Belt of Orion visible just to the right of the nebula, shines energetic light into the
Flame that knocks electrons away from the great clouds of
hydrogen gas that reside there. Much of the glow results when the
electrons and ionized hydrogen recombine. The above false-color picture of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) was taken is a composite of both visible and
infrared light, the later energy band being where a young star cluster
becomes visible. The
Flame Nebula is part of the
Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a star-forming region that includes the famous
Horsehead Nebula.
[/b]
[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141209.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_141209.jpg[/img] [size=150]The Flame Nebula in Visible and Infrared[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] What lights up the Flame Nebula? Fifteen hundred light years away towards the constellation of [url=http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Orion.html]Orion[/url] lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap990509.html]dust[/url] lanes, appears, on the left, like a billowing fire. But [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire]fire[/url], the rapid acquisition of [url=http://periodic.lanl.gov/8.shtml]oxygen[/url], is not what makes this [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2024]Flame[/url] glow. Rather the bright star [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061229.html]Alnitak[/url], the easternmost star in the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090929.html]Belt of Orion[/url] visible just to the right of the nebula, shines energetic light into the [url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997IAUS..182P..18M]Flame[/url] that knocks electrons away from the great clouds of [url=http://www.chemicool.com/elements/hydrogen.html]hydrogen[/url] gas that reside there. Much of the glow results when the [url=http://www.aip.org/history/electron/]electrons[/url] and ionized hydrogen recombine. The above false-color picture of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) was taken is a composite of both visible and [url=http://www.gemini.edu/public/infrared.html]infrared[/url] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vNDjAgPgs8]light[/url], the later energy band being where a young star cluster [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Z6y6j6DSQ]becomes visible[/url]. The [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070202.html]Flame Nebula[/url] is part of the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090224.html]Orion Molecular Cloud Complex[/url], a star-forming region that includes the famous [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090721.html]Horsehead Nebula[/url].
[b][table][tr][td=left][url=http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=141208]<< Previous APOD[/url][/td] [td=center][url=http://asterisk.apod.com/view_retro.php?date=1209]This Day in APOD[/url][/td] [td=right][url=http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=141210]Next APOD >>[/url][/td][/tr][/table][/b]