“You’ve undoubtedly seen the smudge of the Orion Nebula hanging just below his belt thousands of times, but the most beautiful image yet of the celestial body was just released Wednesday.
The European Southern Observatory’s new VISTA telescope’s enormous field of view allows it to image the entire nebula at once. It’s been designed to capture near-infrared light. The longer wavelengths of light in that part of the spectrum allow rays to pass through dusty space without being scattering.
The Orion Nebula is located about 1,350 light-years from Earth. The cloud of gas and dust is a nursery for young stars. The red blobs in the features near the center of the image are young, growing stars that are hidden by dust in visible light.
VISTA was just placed into service late last year, so we can expect many more beautiful near-infrared images as it conducts its survey of the sky.”
Read more at Wired (Thanks SonOfSam)
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So, so beautiful…..
Beautiful image .. look like a work of Art… the god of the ants is probabily an artist !
Absolutely jaw dropping!!! I’ve just made it my new desktop background.
Weird huh, that they start to look like those spiritual drawings. Maybe those spiritual people have microscope eyes ….. or is it insect eyes (some of those see the world pretty different as well .. well, lots of animals I guess .. our world is just one of many .. and among humans .. also a lot of differences, not only due to vision via eyes …).
Yeah, looks pretty .. although I have to say .. the text in the article … “You’ve undoubtedly seen the smudge of the Orion Nebula hanging just below his belt thousands of times” … not that I know … did I see it without knowing what I was looking at? I see stars .. lots up there .. and different patterns of light and such .. but to name them … erm .. no … Oh, except for one .. the pan with the long handle, “het steelpannetje”
Well, ain’t that something……wow!
LC x
We live in a gorgeous universe
x
Is it just me or does the blue bit in the middle look like a kind of monkey alien sticking it’s middle finger up at us? Anyway awesome pic, shame we can’t see that many stars in the sky what with all the light pollution.
Unbelievable man! Seeing this, we realize how small we are. There is this infinite huge world outside, and we’re just wandering around, having daily complaints.