Delicate Power

Delicate wisps of gas and dust display the power of the stars at the heart of the Orion Nebula, a giant stellar nursery that has given birth to hundreds of stars. Energy from the nebula's hottest, brightest stars causes some of the gas to glow like the inside of a fluorescent bulb, while simply illuminating other wisps like fog in a headlight. Energy and winds from these stars also erodes the remaining material in the nebula, reducing the supply of gas and dust that is available to make more stars. This false-color image is a composite of several pictures snapped through different filters through a 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. [ESO/Igor Chekalin]