Friday, February 8, 2013

Orion Proplyds




The Orion Proplyds were first discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers expected the Orion nebula to be a host for lots of star formation, and were amazed to see that Hubble could resolve individual young stars. The Proplyds are young stars surrounded by a gaseous circumstellar disk . In the image of the Orion Nebula above, the proplyds are enlarged so you can see the bright central star surrounded by a dark oval shaped ring. The disks appear dark because they are absorbing the light emitted by the nebula, and re-emitting it in the infrared, a wavelength of light that does not appear bright in these images. Portions of these disks will eventually fall onto the star, and the rest will either form planets, or be dispersed back into the nebula. Astronomers are using these, and other images of young stars, to learn about how stars form and how planetary systems evolve.

Image Credit:
NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA), the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team and L. Ricci (ESO)