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The Orion Nebula
Credit: Mark McCaughrean (AI Potsdam) et al., ISAAC, VLT ANTU, ESO The Great Nebula in Orion is a colorful place, visible to the unaided eye. But this shows it is a busy neighborhood of young stars, hot gas, and dark dust. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula (M42) is the Trapezium |
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| This is an old picture of part of Orion called the "Horsehead nebula" |  |
| See how much more detail we can see with colour |  |
and this s a very detailed look at the most central part 
| Hubble=X. In nearby galaxy NGC 6822, this nebula surrounds bright, massive, newborn stars. A mere 4 million years young, these condensed from the galaxy's interstellar gas and dust clouds. |  |
| The Rosette Nebula Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler has an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244. These stars formed about four million years ago from the nebular material and their stellar winds are clearing a hole in the nebula's center, insulated by a layer of dust and hot gas. Ultraviolet light from the hot cluster stars causes the surrounding nebula to glow. The Rosette Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, lies about 5000 light-years away. |
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| This is M100: a very beautiful spiral galaxy, probably like the Milky Way. But note how hot the centre is: this is probably the result of a black hole |  |
| These are stars very close to the centre of our galaxy that are moving so fast, they must be orbiting a black hole |
| Cygnus A
Credit: A. Wilson & A. Young (UMD), P. Shopbell (Caltech), CXC, NASA This false-color x-ray image is centered on the galaxy Cygnus A. It is seen here as a spectacular high energy x-ray source. But it is actually more famous as one of the brightest celestial radio sources. The false-color radio image (inset right) shows remarkable similarity to Chandra's x-ray view. Near light speed jets of atomic particles produced by a massive central black hole are believed to cause the emission. |
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| These are 3 galaxies (in a group called Stefan's quintet) which are colliding |  |
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Cartwheel Of Fortune
Credit: Kirk Borne (STScI), NASA A collision of two galaxies has created a surprisingly recognizable shape on a cosmic scale - "The Cartwheel Galaxy". It is part of a group of galaxies about 500 million light years away in the constellation Sculptor (two smaller galaxies in the group are visible on the right). Its rim is an immense ring-like structure 100,000 light years in diameter composed of newly formed, extremely bright, massive stars. But ... what happened to the small intruder galaxy? |
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| So having looked at all of this, isn't it nice that we live in such a pretty place! |  |