Baby Stars in the Witch Head Nebula Revealed by Spitzer
spitzer_sig06-020a August 14th, 2006
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/L.Rebull (SSC/Caltech)
Eight hundred light-years away in the Orion constellation, a gigantic murky cloud called the "Witch Head" nebula is brewing baby stars.
The stellar infants are revealed as pink dots in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Wisps of green in the cloud are carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are found on barbecue grills and in automobile exhaust on Earth.
This image was obtained as part of the Spitzer Space Telescope Research Program for Teachers and Students, involving high school teachers and their students from across the United States.
The infrared image is a three-color composite, in which light with a wavelength of 4.5 microns is blue, 8.0-micron light is green, and 24-micron light is red.
Provider: Spitzer Space Telescope
Image Source: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/2243-sig06-020a-Baby-Stars-in-the-Witch-Head-Nebula-Revealed-by-Spitzer
Curator: Spitzer Space Telescope, Pasadena, CA, USA
Image Use Policy: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/info/18-Image-Use-Policy
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Image Details
Distance
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- sig06-020a
- Subject Category
- B.4.1.2.
- Subject Name
- Witch Head Nebula
- Credits
- NASA/JPL-Caltech/L.Rebull (SSC/Caltech)
- Release Date
- 2006-08-14
- Lightyears
- 800
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/2243-sig06-020a-Baby-Stars-in-the-Witch-Head-Nebula-Revealed-by-Spitzer
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Good
- Distance Notes
- Distance taken from Fast Facts.
- Facility
- Spitzer, Spitzer, Spitzer
- Instrument
- IRAC, IRAC, MIPS
- Color Assignment
- Blue, Green, Red
- Band
- Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
- Bandpass
- Near-IR, Mid-IR, Mid-IR
- Central Wavelength
- 3600, 8000, 24000
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 76.459782663924983, -6.4448761354461732
- Reference Dimension
- 3496.0, 2121.0
- Reference Pixel
- 1748, 1060.5
- Scale
- -0.00033903624048727107, 0.00033903624048727107
- Rotation
- 5.0042963393
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- Spitzer Space Telescope
- URL
- http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu
- Name
- Spitzer Space Telescope
- Telephone
- Address
- 1200 E. California Blvd.
- City
- Pasadena
- State/Province
- CA
- Postal Code
- 91125
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/info/18-Image-Use-Policy
- Publisher
- Spitzer Science Center
- Publisher ID
- spitzer
- Resource ID
- sig06-020a.tif
- Resource URL
- http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/uploaded_files/images/0001/6292/sig06-020a.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2012-10-11
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
