Protoplanetary Discs in the Orion Nebula
Hubble Space Telescope discovered four protoplanetary disks around young stars in the Orion nebula, located 1, 500 light-years away. This is one of them. Gas and dust disks, long suspected by astronomers to be an early stage of planetary formation, can be directly seen in visible light by Hubble.
Credit:About the Image
About the Object
| Name: | Messier 42, NGC 1976, Orion Proplyd |
|---|---|
| Type: | Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Disk : Protoplanetary Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation |
| Distance: | 1400 light years |
| Constellation: | Orion |
| Category: | Nebulae Stars |
Coordinates
| Position (RA): | 5 35 12.10 |
|---|---|
| Position (Dec): | -5° 19' 24.72" |
| Field of view: | 0.07 x 0.07 arcminutes |
| Orientation: | North is 1.3° right of vertical |
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Colours & filters
| Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
|---|---|---|
| Optical OIII | 502 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2 |
| Optical H-alpha | 656 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2 |
| Optical NII | 658 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2 |