Orion Nebula: A rich cluster of young stars about 1,500 light years from Earth.
Caption: The Orion Nebula is one of the closest
star formation regions from Earth at a
distance of 1,500 light years. A favorite
for amateur astronomers and casual sky
watchers, Orion is seen as never before
in this composite image created from
Chandra and Hubble data. The wispy filaments
seen by Hubble (pink and purple)
are clouds of gas and dust that
provide the material used as fuel by
young stars. The bright point-like
sources (blue and orange) are newly
formed stars captured in X-ray light by
Chandra. These fledgling stars are seen
to flare in their X-ray intensity, which
suggests that our Sun had many violent
and energetic outbursts when it was
much younger.
Scale: Image is 5.5 arcmin across.
Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS Image
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