Amateur and professional astronomers alike know the Orion Nebula as one of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky, and a new image from Europe's powerful VISTA telescope has captured it in a stunning new light. But rather than just seeing the visible cloud of gas enshrouding the stellar nursery, VISTA turned its infrared vision upon the young stars emerging in and around the nebula.
Four such youngsters at the center of the nebula have cleared out their immediate surroundings with ultraviolet radiation that causes nearby gas to glow. A red region directly above the center of the image reveals young stars that continue to form amidst clouds of interstellar gas. Such stars can eject gas at speeds of almost 435,000 miles per hour (700,000 km/hr).Fainter red features below the Orion Nebula also represent lesser spots of activity where stars are being born.
Those features would typically be hidden from ordinary visible-light telescopes. But don't let that stop you from pointing your own camera toward the night sky -- as PopSci's Eric Adams noted in his DIY astrophotography guide, it's all worth the trouble.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


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Does anyone else notice a creepy alien staring at me in the pic holding some sort of rifle?
There can't be an alien living in a cloud of gas. What does it do, eat and breath gas?? LOLOLOLOLOL, nerd joke!!!!!
I think i saw it!
In the center of the pic.
Looks like an owl with a scar across his face and gold right eye.
I think it looks more like Robbie the Robot with a pair of six shooters.
I think it's in the red, it is looking down sort of.
I am With George_jetson on this one Thought it looked like a robot to.
Am I the only one who sees three wolves howling at the moon? Look closer.
Sparta i don't see no wolves, lol, but i definetly see that alien, and that is a awesome pic
This picture is absolutely amazing. The color of all the gases from the stars make this photo one in a million. I wish I had that telescope to look at the beautiful galaxies, I would love to see something like this every night. But I do think I see a figure in the gas too, although not a alien, or robot, or wolves; I think it looks like a scorpion. An all the smaller stars look like spirits or orbs. The intensity in the lenses for this telescope must be extremely strong to captivate such a magnificent object. I give 5 stars(if there was a rating).
Look a the field of stars and galaxies behind the nebula....amazing!