Hercules Rockefeller
01-20-08, 05:43 PM
Four extremely bright and massive stars, called the Trapezium, primarily illuminate the Orion Nebula. Güdel et al. (Science 18 January 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5861, pp. 309 - 312) show that the Orion Nebula glows in x-rays because it is flooded with very hot gas in excess of 1 million kelvin. :eek:
This heating is likely the result of shocks from powerful outflows from one bright star in the Trapezium. The majority of the stars in our Galaxy are found in regions similar to the Orion Nebula, so this phenomenon should be widespread throughout the galactic plane.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol319/issue5861/images/medium/289-1-med.gif
Cradle of star formation. This mosaic image depicts a 12.8 square light-year portion of the Orion Nebula, the nearest region of massive-star formation. The bright area in the upper left center is the well-studied Trapezium region of 9000 K gas, and the much larger nearly circular region to the lower right is the Extended Orion Nebula within which diffuse x-ray emission from 2 million K gas was observed by Güdel et al.
CREDIT: SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
Vol. 319. no. 5861, pp. 309 - 312) show that the Orion Nebula glows in x-rays because it is flooded with very hot gas in excess of 1 million kelvin. :eek:
This heating is likely the result of shocks from powerful outflows from one bright star in the Trapezium. The majority of the stars in our Galaxy are found in regions similar to the Orion Nebula, so this phenomenon should be widespread throughout the galactic plane.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol319/issue5861/images/medium/289-1-med.gif
Cradle of star formation. This mosaic image depicts a 12.8 square light-year portion of the Orion Nebula, the nearest region of massive-star formation. The bright area in the upper left center is the well-studied Trapezium region of 9000 K gas, and the much larger nearly circular region to the lower right is the Extended Orion Nebula within which diffuse x-ray emission from 2 million K gas was observed by Güdel et al.
CREDIT: SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE