NASA Chandra: Inside the Flame Nebula - NGC 2024

Image credit: X-ray: NASA /CXC /PSU /K.Getman, E.Feigelson, M.Kuhn & the MYStIX team; Infrared:NASA /JPL-Caltech

Stars are often born in clusters, in giant clouds of gas and dust.

Astronomers have studied two star clusters using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared telescopes and the results show that the simplest ideas for the birth of these clusters cannot work, as described in our latest press release.

This composite image shows one of the clusters, NGC 2024, which is found in the center of the so-called Flame Nebula about 1,400 light years from Earth.

In this image, X-rays from Chandra are seen as purple, while infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are coloured red, green, and blue.

A study of NGC 2024 and the Orion Nebula Cluster, another region where many stars are forming, suggest that the stars on the outskirts of these clusters are older than those in the central regions.

This is different from what the simplest idea of star formation predicts, where stars are born first in the center of a collapsing cloud of gas and dust when the density is large enough.

The research team developed a two-step process to make this discovery. First, they used Chandra data on the brightness of the stars in X-rays to determine their masses.

Next, they found out how bright these stars were in infrared light using data from Spitzer, the 2MASS telescope, and the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT).

By combining this information with theoretical models, the ages of the stars throughout the two clusters could be estimated.

According to the new results, the stars at the center of NGC 2024 were about 200,000 years old while those on the outskirts were about 1.5 million years in age.

In Orion, the age spread went from 1.2 million years in the middle of the cluster to nearly 2 million years for the stars toward the edges.

Horsehead and Flame Nebulae - David Ellison

David Ellison captured this image of the Horsehead and Flame Nebulae from his backyard in Chattanooga, Tenn. 

Credit: David Ellison

The iconic Horsehead and Flame nebulas paint the night sky in this beautiful image.

Amateur astrophotographer David Ellison captured this image from his backyard in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Located approximately 1,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Orion, the Horsehead Nebula is simple to spot due to its unique shape resembling a horse's head.

A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).

"People don't realize just how large this nebula is in the sky," Ellison reported. His image is a narrow band photograph of four hours of exposure using a QSI camera and a 4-inch telescope. The star seen just above the Flame nebula is Alnitak.

The Horsehead Nebula is also called Barnard 33 in emission nebula IC 434 and is part of a large, dark molecular cloud.

It was first spotted in 1888 by astronomers at the Harvard College Observatory, who imaged the nebula using a telescope and photographic plates.

ESA Herschel Captures Infra-red Image of Horsehead Nebula

Credit: ESA/Herschel /PACS, SPIRE/N. Schneider, Ph. André, V. Könyves (CEA Saclay, France) for the “Gould Belt survey” Key Programme

Wednesday, May 1, 2013: A new view shows the Horsehead Nebula in the context of its surroundings. 

The nebula resides in the constellation Orion, about 1300 light-years away, which makes up part of the vast Orion Molecular Cloud complex. 

Flame Nebula

The nebula appears to poke its horse’s head shape above the surrounding gas and dust at the far right-hand side, pointing towards the Flame Nebula. 

Intense radiation streaming away from newborn stars heats up the surrounding dust and gas (pink and white). 

To the left lie two other star formation sites, NGC 2068 and NGC 2071 (Messier 78). 

Cool gas and dust networks weave throughout the scene as red and yellow filaments. Some of these may host newly forming low-mass stars.

NASA WISE Image: The Flame Nebula

The Flame Nebula sits on the eastern hip of Orion the Hunter, a constellation most easily visible in the northern hemisphere during winter evenings.

This view of the nebula was taken by WISE, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.

This image shows a vast cloud of gas and dust where new stars are being born.

Three familiar nebulae are visible in the central region: the Flame Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula and NGC 2023.

The Flame Nebula is the brightest and largest in the image. It is lit by a star inside it that is 20 times the mass of the sun and would be as bright to our eyes as the other stars in Orion's belt if it weren't for all the surrounding dust, which makes it appear 4 billion times dimmer than it actually is.

NASA WISE Image: Orion Molecular Cloud and the Flame Nebula

This mosaic image taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, features three nebulae that are part of the giant Orion Molecular Cloud; the Flame nebula, the Horsehead nebula and NGC 2023.

Despite its name, there is no fire roaring in the Flame nebula.

What makes this nebula shine is the bright blue star seen to the right of the central cloud.

This star, Alnitak, is the easternmost star in Orion's belt.

Wind and radiation from Alnitak blasts away electrons from the gas in the Flame nebula, causing it to become ionized and glow in visible light. The infrared glow seen by WISE is from dust warmed by Alnitak's radiation.

The famous Horsehead nebula appears in this image as a faint bump on the lower right side of the vertical dust ridge. In visible light, this nebula is easily recognizable as a dramatic silhouette in the shape of a horse's head.

It is classified as a dark nebula because the dense cloud blocks out the visible light of the glowing gas behind it. WISE's infrared detectors can peer into the cloud to see the glow of the dust itself.

A third nebula, NGC 2023, can be seen as a bright circle in the lower half of the image. NGC 2023 is classified as a reflection nebula, meaning that the dust is reflecting the visible light of nearby stars. But here WISE sees the infrared glow of the warmed dust itself.

Color in this image represents specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths, mainly from hot stars. Relatively cooler objects, such as the dust of the nebulae, appear green and red. Green represents 4.6-micron light and red represents 12-micron light.

This image was made from data collected after WISE began to run out of its supply of solid hydrogen cryogen in August 2010. Cryogen is a coolant used to make infrared detectors more sensitive.

WISE mapped the entire sky by July using four infrared detectors, but during the period from August to October 2010, while the cryogen was depleting, WISE had only three detectors operational, and the 12-micron detector was less sensitive.

This turned out to be a good thing in the case of this image, because the less-sensitive detector reduced the glare of the Flame portion of the nebula enough to bring out details of the rest of the nebula.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

NASA WISE Image: Flaming Star Nebula

An image of the Flaming Star Nebula, taken in infrared light by NASA's WISE space telescope.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team

The new pictures from WISE — short for Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which launched on Dec. 14, 2009 — are dramatic, colourful images of interstellar clouds of gas and dust called nebulas.

The first photo depicts a structure known as the Flaming Star Nebula, which is about 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Auriga.

At the nebula's heart is the star AE Aurigae, which appears to be ablaze, hence the name.

AE Aurigae is a so-called runaway star, researchers said. It was likely born in the Trapezium Cluster, in the constellation Orion, but was booted out by a collision with a binary star system about 2.5 million years ago.

The enhanced colours seen in the image represent specific wavelengths of infrared light, which unaided human eyes cannot see. 

Hot stars scattered throughout the nebula show up as blue and cyan. Glowing gas appears green, while heated-up dust is primarily red, researchers said.

Scottish scientists who reach for stars ‘are leading the world’

An image of the Flame Nebula that has given astronomers their most vivid picture of the star formation was offered up by the Scottish government yesterday as proof of the world-leading role maintained by the country’s scientists and researchers.

The photograph was taken by the Vista telescope at the European Southern Observatory, using technology designed and built at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh. That contribution was symbolic of the global importance of the country’s research base, said Anne Glover, the Scottish government’s chief scientific adviser.

“In every area of science Scotland outperforms the world average; our performance is truly stunning for a nation of only five million people,” Professor Glover said. “This is a country full of potential for those in science, engineering and technology.”

Professor Glover was speaking at the presentation of a report that purports to demonstrate the continuing success of home-grown scientists and engineers by comparing rates of publication of academic studies, and by collating the numbers of citations achieved by Scottish researchers in articles published by their peers from other countries.

The 120-page document showed that in sciences as diverse as medicine, agriculture and biology, Scotland has achieved 1.8 per cent of the world’s academic citations, from a population share of less than 0.1 per cent. Scotland even led the field in space sciences, Professor Glover said, though more dogs than Scots have experienced space travel so far.

To read the full article, click here .....

VISTA: The Flame Nebula in the Constellation of Orion

The Flame Nebula, a spectacular star-forming cloud of gas and dust in the constellation of Orion.

The image was taken by the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (Vista), based at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Picture: ESO / EPA