Orion Nebula Orion Nebula

Closeup of ``Proplyds''

Protoplanetary Disk

Press Release Text Hubble Confirms Abundance of Protoplanetary Disks Around Newborn Stars (PR94-24 June 13, 1994)

Animation Related Animation

Links to public HST pictures

Zolt Levay -- [email protected] Office of Public Outreach -- [email protected]

June 14, 1995

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/94/24.html [5/25/1999 11:56:27 AM] http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/jpeg/OrionFull.jpg

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http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/jpeg/OrionFull.jpg (2 of 2) [5/25/1999 11:56:32 AM] http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/gif/OrionFull.txt PHOTO CAPTION STScI-PR94-24a FOR RELEASE: Monday, June 13, 1994

HUBBLE PROBES THE GREAT ORION NEBULA

A NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of a region of the Great Nebula in Orion.

This is one of the nearest regions of very recent star formation (300,000 years ago). The nebula is a giant gas cloud illuminated by the brightest of the young hot stars at the top of the picture. Many of the fainter young stars are surrounded by disks of dust and gas that are slightly more than twice the diameter of the Solar System.

The great plume of gas in the lower left in this picture is the result of the ejection of material from a recently formed star.

The brightest portions are "hills" on the surface of the nebula, and the long bright bar is where Earth observers look along a long "wall" on a gaseous surface. The diagonal length of the image is 1.6 light-years. Red light depicts emission in Nitrogen; green is Hydrogen; and blue is Oxygen.

The Orion Nebula star-birth region is 1,500 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation Orion the Hunter.

The image was taken on 29 December 1993 with the HST's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. credit: C.R. O'Dell/Rice University NASA

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http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/jpeg/OrionProplyds.jpg [5/25/1999 11:56:57 AM] http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/gif/OrionProplyds.txt PHOTO CAPTION STScI-PR94-24b FOR RELEASE: Monday, June 13, 1994

CLOSE-UP OF "PROPLYDS" IN ORION

A Hubble Space Telescope view of a small portion of the Orion Nebula reveals five young stars. Four of the stars are surrounded by gas and dust trapped as the stars formed, but were left in orbit about the star. These are possibly protoplanetary disks, or "proplyds," that might evolve on to agglomerate planets. The proplyds which are closest to the hottest stars of the parent star cluster are seen as bright objects, while the object farthest from the hottest stars is seen as a dark object. The field of view is only 0.14 light-years across.

The Orion Nebula star-birth region is 1,500 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation Orion the Hunter.

The image was taken on 29 December 1993 with the HST's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. credit: C.R. O'Dell/Rice University NASA

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/gif/OrionProplyds.txt [5/25/1999 11:56:58 AM] http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/gif/OrionProplyds.gif

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http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/jpeg/OrionPropDark.jpg [5/25/1999 11:57:04 AM] http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/gif/OrionPropDark.txt PHOTO CAPTION STScI-PR94-24c FOR RELEASE: Monday, June 13, 1994

HUBBLE VIEW OF A PROTOPLANETARY DISK

A Hubble Space Telescope view of a very young star (between 300,000 and a million years of age) surrounded by material left over from the star's formation. The cool, reddish star is about one fifth the mass of our Sun. The dark disk, seen in silhouette against the background of the Orion Nebula, is possibly a protoplanetary disk from which planets will form. The disk contains at least seven times the material as our Earth. The disk is 56 billion miles across (90 billion kilometers), or 7.5 times the diameter of our Solar System.

The Orion Nebula starbirth region is 1,500 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation Orion the Hunter.

The image was taken on 29 December 1993 with the HST's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, WFPC2, in PC mode. credit: C.R. O'Dell/Rice University NASA

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/gif/OrionPropDark.txt [5/25/1999 11:57:05 AM] http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/gif/OrionPropDark.gif

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/gif/OrionPropDark.gif [5/25/1999 11:57:10 AM] http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/press-releases/94-24.txt CONTACT: Ray Villard, STScI Monday, June 13, 1994 (410) 338-4514 PRESS RELEASE NO.: STScI-PR94-24

Dr. C. Robert O'Dell (713) 527-8101 x3633

HUBBLE CONFIRMS ABUNDANCE OF PROTOPLANETARY DISKS AROUND NEWBORN STARS

NASA announced today that a Rice University astronomer using the Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered the strongest evidence yet that the process which may form planets is common in the Milky Way galaxy, of which Earth is a part, and the universe beyond.

Dr. C. Robert O'Dell said observations with the newly repaired telescope clearly reveal that great disks of dust -- the raw material for planet formation -- are swirling around at least half and probably many more of the stars in the Orion Nebula, a region only 1,500 light-years from Earth where new stars are being born.

O'Dell and a colleague, Zheng Wen, formerly of Rice and now at the University of Kentucky, surveyed 110 stars and found disks around 56 of them. Because it is easier to detect the star than the disk, it is likely that far more stars are being orbited by protoplanetary material, O'Dell said.

O'Dell first discovered these disks, which he dubbed "proplyds," in Hubble Space Telescope images taken in 1992. However, the new images bolster his theory by distinguishing clearly that the objects are indeed pancake-shaped disks of dust, not shells of dust as some astronomers have maintained. HST clearly resolves a young star at the center of each disk. O'Dell has also been able to measure at least a portion of the mass of a dust disk and found that the disk contains enough material to make an earth-like planet.

The theory that the Earth and other planets of the solar system were formed out of just such a disk some 4.5 billion years ago by the coalescing of matter caused by gravitational attraction is widely accepted. O'Dell said the disks in the Orion Nebula presumably contain the same materials that constitute the planets of Earth's solar system -- carbon, silicates, and other base constituents.

The only confirmed planetary system to date, consists of three earth-sized bodies orbiting a neutron star 1,000 light-years away. Since the neutron star is the burned-out remnant from a stellar explosion, these planets might have formed at the end of the star's life, and so, are not a good indicator of the abundance of planetary systems like our own.

O'Dell's findings of an abundance of protoplanetary disks in a cluster of young stars reinforces the assumption that planetary systems are common in the universe.

And because planets are necessary for life, as it is known on Earth, to become established and flourish, the likelihood that

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/press-releases/94-24.txt (1 of 3) [5/25/1999 11:57:11 AM] http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/press-releases/94-24.txt planets are common in the universe raises the likelihood of the existence of life beyond Earth.

The only place where life is known to exist is Earth. Finding life, or fossils of life, elsewhere in our solar system -- the major object of the exploration of Mars -- would be the first evidence of life beyond Earth. For life to arise independently on two planets in the same solar system would mean that life likely is not accidental and is abundant in the universe.

The Hubble images clearly distinguish the central star from the disk and show that stars in Orion that are the mass of our Sun and lower are likely to possess disks. Stars hotter than our Sun might destroy the dusty disks before they can agglomerate into planets, according to O'Dell.

Hubble can see the disks because they are illuminated by the hottest stars in the Orion Nebula, and some of them are seen in silhouette against the bright nebula. However, some of these proplyds are bright enough to have been seen previously by ground-based optical and radio telescopes as stars. Their true nature was not recognized until the Hubble observations.

One striking HST image shows a dark elliptical disk silhouetted against the bright background of the Orion nebula. "This object represents the most direct evidence uncovered to date for protoplanetary disks," says O'Dell.

Hubble's resolution has allowed O'Dell to determine accurately the mass of the outer rim of the disk. It turns out to be at least several times the mass of our Earth. The entire disk is 53 billion miles across, or 7.5 times the diameter of our solar system. The central, reddish star is about one fifth the mass of our Sun.

The disks identified in the Hubble survey are a missing link in the understanding of how planets like those in our planetary system form. Their abundance in a young star cluster shows that the basic material of planets exists around a large fraction of stars. This reinforces the probability that many stars have planetary systems.

Because the Orion star cluster is less than a million years of age, there has not been enough time for planets to agglomerate from the dust within the disks. Many of the stars are still contracting towards the mature status that they will then retain for billions of years. The most massive stars in the cluster have already reached their adult stage of maximum hydrogen fuel burning and their surfaces have become so hot that their radiation heats up the gas left over after star formation. This is visible to observers with binoculars as the Orion nebula, which is in the middle of the region known as the sword of Orion.

THE GENESIS OF A SOLAR SYSTEM

Hubble Space Telescope's detailed images confirm more than a century of speculation, conjecture, and theory about the genesis of a solar system.

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/press-releases/94-24.txt (2 of 3) [5/25/1999 11:57:11 AM] http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/press-releases/94-24.txt According to current theories, the dust contained within the disks eventually agglomerates to make planets. Hubble's images provide direct evidence that dust surrounding a newborn star has too much spin to be drawn into the collapsing star. Instead, the material spreads out into a broad, flattened disk.

Before the Hubble discovery, remnant dust disks had been confirmed around only four stars: Beta Pictoris, Alpha Lyrae, Alpha Piscis Austrini, and Epsilon Eridani. They are a fraction of the mass of the proplyds in Orion, and might be leftover material from the planet formation process. Less direct detections of circumstellar material around stars in nearby star forming regions have been made by radio and infrared telescopes.

Unlike these previous observations, Hubble has observed newly formed stars less than a million years old which are still contracting out of primordial gas.

Planets are considered a fundamental prerequisite for the existence of life as we know it. A planet provides a storehouse of chemicals for manufacturing the complex molecules of biology, gravitationally holds an atmosphere of gasses that are used by life, and receives heat and light from the central star to power photosynthesis and other chemical reactions required by life forms.

O'Dell's Orion results will appear in the November 20 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

*********************************

The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/press-releases/94-24.txt (3 of 3) [5/25/1999 11:57:11 AM] Animations/Movies Index of Animations

Huge Spring Storms Rouse Uranus from Winter Hibernation STScI PR 99-11

Rotation of Uranus (18.04MB)

Rotation of Uranus (3.90MB)

Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images STScI PR 99-05

Model of Stellar Disk and Planet Formation (8.26 MB) Gap In Stellar Dust Disk May Be Swept Out By Planet STScI PR 99-03

Cornagraph Demonstration (1.57 MB) The Universe "Down Under" Is The Target of Hubble's Latest Deep-View STScI PR 98-41

Animation showing Hubble Space Telescope Telescope pointing at HDF North and South targets (2.53 MB)

The Hubble Space Telescope is pointing north at a blank patch of sky above the Big Dipper (39.21 MB)

Zoom" into the Hubble Deep Field from a wide view of the sky (2.31 MB)

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Anim.html (1 of 5) [5/25/1999 11:57:16 AM] Animations/Movies

Hubble Provides A Moving Look At Neptune's Stormy Disposition STScI PR 98-34

Neptune's Weather: Animation made from images of Neptune (17.25 MB)

NASA Selects Home For Next Generation Space Telescope STScI PR 98-20

(4.43 MB) (3.13 MB) NASA Administrator Dan Goldin makes the official announcement

(10.39 MB) (6.91 MB) Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski comments on placing NGST's operations at STScI

(5.54 MB) (2.53 MB) The Senator and Administrator unveil the poster commemorating the announcement Hubble Takes First Image of a Possible Planet Around Another Star and Finds a Runaway World STScI PR 98-19

False color image of two gas giant protoplanets that have formed quickly in a disk of gas and dust (3.69 MB)

(1.94 MB) (1.03MB) Zoom-In/Visualization of TMR-1C Planet

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Anim.html (2 of 5) [5/25/1999 11:57:16 AM] Animations/Movies

Gamma-Ray Burst Found to be Most Energetic Event in Universe STScI PR 98-17

Animation of Gamma Ray Burst (2.63 MB) Hubble Provides Multiple Views of How to Feed a Black Hole STScI PR 98-14

Simulation of a merger between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy that may have shaped Centaurus A (5.24 MB)

HST/NICMOS image with superimposed diagram (5.69 MB)

Centaruas A Feeding a Black Hole (4.76 MB)

Zoom Sequence: Ground-based image of Centaurus A (12.93 MB) Shock Wave Sheds Light on Fading Supernova STScI PR 98-08

(2.57 MB) (2.07 MB) Animation of Super Nova 1987A

Hubble Reveals Stellar Fireworks Accompanying Galaxy Collisions STScI PR 97-34

Zoom into the Antennae Galaxies (3.9 MB)

Computer Simulation of Galaxy Collision (2.2 MB)

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Anim.html (3 of 5) [5/25/1999 11:57:16 AM] Animations/Movies

Artist's Concept of Hypothetical Collision of the Milky Way with the Andromeda Galaxy (2.2 MB)

Galaxy Merger Evolution Sequence (1.3 MB) Hubble Reveals Huge Crater on the Surface of the Asteroid Vesta STScI PR 97-27

Asteriod Vesta Animation (1.49 MB) Hubble Probes Inner Region Of Comet Hyakutake STScI PR 96-14

Animated star chart showing path of Comet Hyakutake (2.81 MB) Hubble Finds Thousands of Gaseous Fragments Surrounding a Dying Star STScI PR 96-13

Animation showing formation of the Helix Nebula (1.13 MB)

Warped Disk in Beta Pictoris STScI PR 96-02

Animated model of star with disk and planet (522KB)

The Hubble Deep Field STScI PR 96-01

Animation of HDF Zoom in (1.81 MB)

http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Anim.html (4 of 5) [5/25/1999 11:57:16 AM] Animations/Movies

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Mosiac Of Orion Nebula (475 KB)

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