Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  HD290928  ·  HD290930  ·  HD290932  ·  HD290933  ·  HD290961  ·  HD290962  ·  HD290963  ·  HD290964  ·  HD290965  ·  HD290966  ·  HD290967  ·  HD290968  ·  HD290970  ·  HD290972  ·  HD290973  ·  HD291007  ·  HD291008  ·  HD291009  ·  HD291010  ·  HD291011  ·  HD291012  ·  HD291013  ·  HD291016  ·  HD291052  ·  HD291053  ·  HD291061  ·  HD291065  ·  HD291066  ·  HD294435  ·  HD294471  ·  And 34 more.
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Orion Molecular Cloud, John Bozeman
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Orion Molecular Cloud

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Orion Molecular Cloud, John Bozeman
Powered byPixInsight

Orion Molecular Cloud

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Description

The Orion molecular cloud complex (or, simply, the Orion complex) is a star-forming region with stellar ages ranging up to 12 Myr. Two giant molecular clouds are a part of it, Orion A and Orion B. The stars currently forming within the complex are located within these clouds. A number of other somewhat older stars no longer associated with the molecular gas are also part of the complex, most notably the Orion's Belt (Orion OB1b), as well as the dispersed population north of it (Orion OB1a). Near the head of Orion there is also a population of young stars that is centered on Meissa. The complex is between 1 000 and 1 400 light-years away, and hundreds of light-years across. The Orion complex is one of the most active regions of nearby stellar formation visible in the night sky, and is home to both protoplanetary discs and very young stars. Much of it is bright in infrared wavelengths due to the heat-intensive processes involved in stellar formation, though the complex contains dark nebulae, emission nebulae, reflection nebulae, and H II regions. The presence of ripples on the surface of Orion's molecular clouds was discovered in 2010. The ripples are a result of the expansion of the nebulae gas over pre-existing molecular gas.

12 micron IR data from the WISE All Sky Survey. Processed with FITS Liberator, PixInsight and Photoshop 2023.

This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Orion Molecular Cloud, John Bozeman