Colorful Cocoon

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 January 16, 2007

The Orion Nebula is a nursery where hundreds of new stars are being born. This false-color image, which combines visible and infrared light, shows intricate details in the "cocoon" of gas and dust that hides many of the newborn stars. The brightest stars in the nebula are near the center of the image. Known collectively as the Trapezium, the four hot, massive stars are lighting up the nebula around them. Their ultraviolet light also is eroding the cocoon, stripping away the material that hides other stars and stopping the process of star formation. The infrared observations, from Spitzer Space Telescope, show some of the younger stars as orange-red dots embedded in the nebula. The different colors in the image show the presence of different chemical elements. [NASA/JPL/T. Megeath (University of Toledo)]

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