A few years and many observations later, Stanke and his team have now had their results accepted ( ) for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. “As astronomers like to say, whenever there is a new telescope or instrument around, observe Orion: there will always be something new and interesting to discover!” says Stanke. ![]() Excited to try out the then recently installed SuperCam ( ) instrument at APEX, they pointed it towards the constellation Orion. The newly processed image of the Flame Nebula, in which smaller nebulae like the Horsehead Nebula also make an appearance, is based on observations conducted by former ESO astronomer Thomas Stanke and his team a few years ago. The “fire” you see in this holiday postcard is Orion’s Flame Nebula and its surroundings captured in radio waves - an image that undoubtedly does justice to the nebula’s name! It was taken with the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), located on the cold Chajnantor Plateau in Chile’s Atacama Desert. But no need to worry, this iconic constellation is neither exploding nor burning. Orion offers you a spectacular firework display to celebrate the holiday season and the new year in this new image from the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit The background image was taken in infrared light with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The image in the rectangle is based on observations conducted with the SuperCam instrument on the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) on Chile’s Chajnantor Plateau. The Flame Nebula and its surroundings are moving away from us, with the red clouds in the background receding faster than the yellow ones in the foreground. The different colours indicate the velocity of the gas. The three objects are part of the Orion cloud, a giant gas structure located between 13 light-years away. ![]() To the top right of NGC 2023, the iconic Horsehead Nebula seems to emerge heroically from the “flames”. The smaller feature on the right is the reflection nebula NGC 2023. ![]() The Flame Nebula is the large feature on the left half of the central, yellow rectangle. Image: Do not let the image and the name of the depicted cosmic object fool you! What you see in this picture is not a wildfire, but the Flame Nebula and its surroundings captured in radio waves.
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