Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 April 17

                           Inside the Flame Nebula
      Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, IPAC Infrared Science Archive -
                            Processing: Amal Biju

   Explanation: The Flame Nebula is a stand out in optical images of the
   dusty, crowded star forming regions toward Orion's belt and the
   easternmost belt star Alnitak, a mere 1,400 light-years away. Alnitak
   is the bright star at the right edge of this infrared image from the
   Spitzer Space Telescope. About 15 light-years across, the infrared view
   takes you inside the nebula's glowing gas and obscuring dust clouds
   though. It reveals many stars of the recently formed, embedded cluster
   NGC 2024 concentrated near the center. The stars of NGC 2024 range in
   age from 200,000 years to 1.5 million years young. In fact, data
   indicate that the youngest stars are concentrated near the middle of
   the Flame Nebula cluster. That's the opposite of the simplest models of
   star formation for a stellar nursery that predict star formation begins
   in the denser center of a molecular cloud core. The result requires a
   more complex model for star formation inside the Flame Nebula.

                     Tomorrow's picture: airglow rainbow
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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