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Protoplanetary Disks in the
Orion Nebula
Visible to the unaided eye from dark skies as the middle object in the
"sword" of the constellation Orion, the Orion nebula, also known as M42 and NGC
1976, is located about 1,500 light years from Earth. A spectacular cloud of gas,
including hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, sulfur, argon, and
chlorine, surrounds several very hot stars in the star cluster deep within the
nebula. The density of these gases is sufficient to allow stars to form.
Orion Nebula Animation
This 650K MPEG movie begins with a view of the sky around the constellation
Orion and proceeds to a more detailed view of the nebula. The animation then
gives an image taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 aboard the Hubble
Space Telescope that provides a more detailed view. The final sequence, from
details of the HST image, shows several of the recently discovered
protoplanetary disks
and finally a single dark disk surrounding a central star.
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