Orion Nebula inside (M42 / NGC 1976)

Earlier, my good friend Maj William W. 'Bill' Price posted his APOD for today which is a snapshot of the beauty and majesty of the Orion Nebula, M42 / NGC 1976. I posted a short video on his post and together we have collaborated to bring you a 4 plus minute IMAX video based on NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team imaging. Bill and I hope that you really enjoy this video from within the Nebula!

This should be watched on the largest screen you have available due to the nature of the video...

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated south[b] of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 ± 20 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. It has a mass of about 2000 times the mass of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.

The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky, and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have directly observed protoplanetary disks, brown dwarfs, intense and turbulent motions of the gas, and the photo-ionizing effects of massive nearby stars in the nebula. There are also supersonic "bullets" of gas piercing the hydrogen clouds of the Orion Nebula. Each bullet is ten times the diameter of Pluto's orbit and tipped with iron atoms glowing bright blue. They were probably formed one thousand years ago from an unknown violent event. --- from Wikipedia.org

Credit:

Image by NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team

Music by Gravity Soundtrack
Category: Science & Technology
Movie: IMAX: Hubble