|
Credit & Copyright: Image Data -
Hubble Legacy Archive,
Processing -
Robert Gendler
Explanation:
Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at
the heart of the Orion Nebula,
are four hot, massive stars
known as
the Trapezium.
Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius,
they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster.
Ultraviolet ionizing radiation from the Trapezium stars,
mostly from the brightest star
Theta 1
Orionis C
powers the complex star forming region's entire visible glow.
About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster was
even more compact in its younger years and a
recent dynamical study
indicates that
runaway stellar collisions
at an earlier age may have formed a black hole
with more than 100 times the mass of the Sun.
The presence of a black hole within the cluster
could explain the observed high velocities of the Trapezium stars,
The Orion Nebula's distance of some 1500 light-years
would make it the closest known black hole to planet Earth.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Orion Nebula - black hole
Publications with words: Orion Nebula - black hole
See also:
- Simulation: Two Black Holes Merge
- The Galaxy, the Jet, and a Famous Black Hole
- APOD: 2024 May 8 Á Visualization: A Black Hole Accretion Disk
- APOD: 2024 May 7 Á Black Hole Accreting with Jet
- APOD: 2024 May 5 Á A Black Hole Disrupts a Passing Star
- APOD: 2024 April 1 Á Swirling Magnetic Field around Our Galaxys Central Black Hole
- Trapezium: At the Heart of Orion