Chandra Release - January 8, 2001

Visual Description: Orion Nebula Cluster

These are two Chandra X-ray Observatory images of the Orion Nebula, which contain bright, orange spots and represent some of the young stars within the nebula.  The side-by-side images are stills from a time-lapse movie, made from hours of Chandra observations to provide a remarkable X-ray view of the Orion Nebula. Orion is one of the closest star-forming regions to Earth. Chandra’s long-duration exposure shows that, over the course of mere hours, many of the 700 objects in this field appear to "shimmer," or vary, in X-ray intensity. In addition to the known stars in the Orion Nebula, several systems containing stars about to ignite their nuclear engines also show X-ray emission. The tremendous amount of X-ray energy emitted within these objects could affect any developing planetary systems in the dusty disks around these infant stars. These observations are extremely important to understand since there is evidence that our Sun and Solar System may have formed in a similar region to the Orion Nebula.