Glorious Orion: UKIRT helps reveal chaotic and overcrowded stellar nursery

Monday, April 20, 2009 - 05:49 in Astronomy & Space

Astronomers using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, the IRAM Millimetre-wave Telescope in Spain, and the Spitzer Space Telescope in orbit above the Earth, have completed the most wide-ranging census ever produced of dynamical star formation in and around the well-known Great Nebula of Orion. They have found this stellar nursery to be a lively and somewhat overcrowded place, with young stars emitting gas jets in all directions, creating quite a chaotic picture and demonstrating there is much more going on in Orion than previously thought. Researchers including UKIRT Director Professor Gary Davis will present this and other UKIRT science results on Monday 20th April at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science at the University of Hertfordshire...

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