Orion Nebula - Research Paper Example

It was the first nebula to be photographed (1880), by Henry Draper in the United States” (Encyclop?dia Britannica, 2013). Orion is amongst the simplest to be found patters of star in the sky on the evenings of the winter season. The feature that defines Orion is a three stars’ row that constitutes Orion’s belt. The bright reddish star called as Betelgeuse is located above the belt. The bluish star called as Rigel exists just underneath the belt. A dimmer stars’ sword hangs straight from this belt.

The ancient astronomers were impressed to observe a splotch of blood upon the stars’ sword, that can be seen with the naked eye in the dark; that is Orion Nebula. Although Orion Nebula can be seen with the naked eye, it was not until 1610 that its actual nebulous nature was identified. “As a vast and active star-forming region of bright dust and gas located a mere 1,500 light-years distant, the various stars within the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) has given astronomers invaluable benchmarks for research on many aspects of star formation” (Major, 2012).

Orion Nebula appears as a web of dark dust and glowing gas when observed with the help of a large telescope or when its processed images are seen. “As a region of gas and dust coalesced under its combined gravity, stars began to burst into life and lit up the rest of the cloud resulting in the bright and colourful swirls of gas and dust that you can easily see through binoculars and telescopes” (Active Astronomy, n.d.). Inside the Orion Nebula forms the adolescent stars’ energy. Trapezium is the conglomerate of four bright stars that exist in its center.

Observations made with the help of telescope have led to the conclusion that 11 stars exist inside the central group whereas the number of immediately neighboring stars is more than 2000 (Fraknoi, 2007). These surrounding stars are very small in age; their age is less than one million years which is why they can be considered as babies according to the astronomical standards. Nebula gains its glow from the energy provided by one of the stars, that is known as Theta-1C Orionis. Theta-IC Orionis can make up to 40 stars like Sun.

The glow it contains is equal to the brightness of 210,000 Suns. The width of nebula is around 30 light years. A certain number of infant stars can be seen throughout the nebula. Disks of darker material surround the infant stars. These disks make a planet system that is similar to the system of planets that surrounds the Sun. “Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed over 150 such "getting-ready-to-make-planets" disks, an indication that the birth of stars is frequently accompanied by the birth of planets” (Fraknoi, 2007).

The Orion Nebula entirely extends over the sky’s one degree region. It consists of numerous associations of stars, neutral clouds of dust and gas, reflection nebulae, and ionized gas volumes. Orion Nebula is a constituent of a larger nebula called as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex that includes Barnard’s Loop, Flame Nebula, M43, Horsehead Nebula, and M78 and extends all across Orion’s constellation. The heat-intensive process of star formation inside the Orion Nebula makes it prominent in the infrared.

The roughly spherical cloud formed by the nebula that reaches its peak in the density close to the core. The temperature of the cloud ranges up to 10,000 K that