Sunday, December 31, 2023

The Flame, Horsehead & Orion Nebulas: Wide View | Palomar Observatory

The Flame, Horsehead & Orion Nebulas: Wide View | Palomar Observatory

Here are three nebulas found in the Orion constellation. The Flame Nebula, designated as NGC 2024 and Sh2-277, is an emission nebula on the far left. The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33 or B33) is a small dark nebula just to the right of it. The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula that is one of the brightest nebulae that can be seen unaided in the upper right-hand corner. It is visible to the naked eye in the night sky on Earth when low levels of light pollution are present. All three nebulas are located in the Milky Way Galaxy and are about 1,400-1,500 light-years away.

Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center managed for NASA by Caltech.

This wide-field image was captured by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at Palomar Observatory. It is a public-private partnership aimed at a systematic study of the optical night sky. Using an extremely wide-field of view camera, ZTF scans the entire Northern sky every two days. The resulting large area survey will enable the astronomical community to pursue a broad range of time-domain science ranging from near-Earth asteroids to the study of distant superluminous supernovae. ZTF is funded in equal part by the US National Science Foundation and an international consortium of universities and institutions.


Image Credit: Palomar/​Caltech/​ZTF

Image Date: 2017


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #FlameNebula #NGC2024 #HoresheadNebula #Barnard33 #OrionNebula #M42 #Orion #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Universe #PalomarObservatory #ZwickyTransientFacility #ZTF #OpticalTelescope #NSF #SanDiegoCounty #PalomarMountain #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

No comments:

Post a Comment