Proplyd in the Orion Nebula
Planet formation is a hazardous process. This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a dust disk around an embryonic star in the Orion Nebula being 'blowtorched' by a blistering flood of ultraviolet radiation from the region's brightest star. Within such a disk are the seeds of planets. The doomed system looks like a hapless comet, with a wayward tail of gas boiling off the withering, pancake-shaped disk.
A protoplanetary disk seen in silhouette against the Orion Nebula.
Credit:J. Bally (University of Colorado) and H. Throop (SWRI)
About the Image
About the Object
| Name: | M 42, Messier 42, NGC 1976, Orion Proplyd |
|---|---|
| Type: | Milky Way : Nebula : Appearance : Dark : Proplyd |
| Distance: | 1400 light years |
| Category: | Stars |
