Orion’s fireplace: ESO releases new image of the Flame Nebula.
University of Kent astronomers pursue the origin of stars within international collaborations using telescopes across the world. Orion provides them with an extraordinary diverse range of activity. Here, it offers you a spectacular firework display to celebrate the holiday season and the new year in this new image from the European Southern Observatory (ESO). But no need to worry, this iconic constellation is neither exploding nor burning. The “fire” you see in this holiday postcard is Orion’s Flame Nebula and its surroundings captured in radio waves — an image that undoubtedly does justice to the nebula’s name! It was taken with the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), located on the cold Chajnantor Plateau in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Dr Dirk Froebrich and Professor Michael Smith are part of this international research team.
The full details of this press release can be found here.
See also the YouTube video.