In outer space. Flight to the Orion Nebula, in visible light.
Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has dazzled us with never-before-seen images of the wonders that exist in the depths of cosmic space. This video, with images of the Orion Nebula, is pure poetry. Even more so with its musical background, the larghetto from Dvorak's Serenade for Strings. The opening features an image of the Orion Nebula produced by Hubble. To be seen and heard in full screen.
Technology: Hubble Space Telescope
Credit: NASA, ESA
Background music: Serenade for Strings Op. 22, larghetto in E major, by Dvorak, performed by the Advent Chamber Orchestra, USA.
This visualization explores the Orion Nebula using visible light and infrared light. The sequence begins with a wide-field view of the sky, showing the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, then zooms out to the scale of the Orion Nebula. Visible light observations (from the Hubble Space Telescope) and infrared light observations (from the Spitzer Space Telescope) are compared first in two-dimensional images and then in three-dimensional models.
As the camera flies toward the star-forming region, the sequence fades between visible and infrared views. The brilliant gaseous landscape has been illuminated and sculpted by the high-energy radiation and strong stellar winds from the hot, massive stars of the central cluster. Infrared observations generally show lower-temperature gas in a deeper layer of the nebula that extends far beyond the visible image. Furthermore, infrared reveals many faint stars that shine primarily at longer wavelengths. High-resolution visible observations show finer details, including the fine bow shocks and tadpole-shaped props. In this way, the film illustrates the contrasting features discovered by astronomy at various wavelengths.
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