Behold: Hubble telescope reveals elegant cosmic tie-dye
The IndependentSign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. A wash of tie-dye colors and tenuous, sinuous shapes, Hubble’s new image is a picture of stellar gas and violent shock waves in the Orion Nebula, which lies 1,000 light years away in the “belt” of the constellation Orion. The curving shapes seen at the top and bottom of the image are formed by shock waves in the gas and dust created when the stellar winds and other outflows of gas and radiation from young stars pushes against and compresses the clouds of gas and dust in the nebula. In the image, it is the the stellar outflows of the star IX Ori, which lies at the outskirts of the nebular, generating the shock waves and curving shapes seen among the colorful clouds. As a relatively nearby site of star formation, the Orion Nebula is a frequent target of astronomers and the Hubble Space Telescope.