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Visible to the naked eye, only
1,500 light-years from Earth,

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the great Orion Nebula has been known
and reverenced since ancient times.

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A popular target of Hubble, researchers
have now identified 42 new discs within it

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that could be the beginnings of
new planetary systems like our own.

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This is the Hubblecast.

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News and images from the
NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

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Travelling through time and space
with our host, Dr. J

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EPISODE 32: Born in Beauty.
Proplyds in the Orion Nebula
a. k. a. Dr. Joe Liske.

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In the sword, just another belt in
the constellation of Orion, the Hunter,

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is the majestic Orion Nebula.

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The Orion Nebula is one of the best
known examples of a star forming nebula,

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a swirling cloud of gas and dust,
where stars begin the journey of life.

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In the early 1990s, astronomers discovered
the so called proplyds in Orion using Hubble.

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A proplyd is a proto-planetary disc

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and it forms along with new-born star
in a spinning mixture of gas and dust.

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At the center, you have the star forming

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and around it bits of dust
come together to form a disc.

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Essentially, proplyds are thought to be
young planetary systems in the making.

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Like many ancient civilizations, the Mayan
culture in parts of what is now southern Mexico

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and northern Central America
was tied to the heavens.

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In fact, the constellation
of Orion and the Orion Nebula

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paid an important role
in their story of creation.

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With three of the brightest stars in
the constellation representing a hearth

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and the Nebula, the fire that warms it.

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One of the first targets of astronomers after
telescopes were invented in the XVll century,

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the Orion Nebula was also the
first nebula ever photographed

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over a hundred years ago by the
American astronomer Henry Drapper,

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a pioneer in astro-photography.

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His photograph, taken in 1880, represents
a milestone in the history of astronomy.

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But the beauty of the Orion
Nebula is not its only draw.

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Astronomers are interested in it

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because it is one of the nearer
star forming regions to Earth

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with stars that are massive enough to
heat up the surrounding gas making it glow.

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This fascinating object has been
a favorite target of Hubble's

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from very early young in
the observatory's lifetime.

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The sharpest image ever taken of the
Orion Nebula was released in 2006.

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This image, from Hubble's
Advanced Camera for Surveys,

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shows more than 3,000
stars of various sizes,

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some of which had never before
been seen in visible light.

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Looking at the frenetic mixture
of gas and swirling dust,

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it's pretty clear that a lot is
going on inside the Orion Nebula.

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Within the awe-inspiring
gaseous fold of Orion, researchers,

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using data from the Wide Field Channel
on Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys,

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have identified two
different types of discs.

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The ones that lie close to the brightest
star in the cluster, Theta 1 Orionis C,

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and those further away from it.

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The star affects the nearby discs
by heating up the gas within them

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causing them to shine brightly.

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The excited material
produces many glowing cusps,

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which all face the bright star and are
thus randomly oriented within the nebula.

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Other interesting features enhance
the looks of these captivating objects,

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such as jets of matter
flowing away and shock-waves.

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The dramatic shock-waves are formed when
the stellar wind from the nearby massive star

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meets the gas in the nebula
producing interesting shapes.

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They sometimes appear like boomerangs
or arrows and, in the case of 181-825,

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the shock-wave makes a proplyd
looks like a space jellyfish.

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The discs that are farther away do not receive
enough energetic radiation from the star

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to set the gas ablaze.

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That's why these discs can only
be detected as a dark silhouettes

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against the bright
background of the nebula.

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The dust in the discs simply
absorbs light from the background.

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Is in these silhouette discs

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that astronomers are better able to
study the properties of dust grains,

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which are thought to clump together
and possibly form planets like our own.

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The bright star that
illuminates some of the proplyds

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allowing us to see them is
both a blessing and a curse.

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The powerful radiation
that lights them up

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also threatens their very existence
as the disc material once heated up

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is very likely to
dissipate and dissolve,

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destroying their potential
to become planets.

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Some of the bright proplyds
are doomed to be torn apart.

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But others will survive and, perhaps,
evolve into planetary systems.

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It is relatively rare to see
images of proplyds in visible light.

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However, the resolution
and sensitivity of Hubble,

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combined with the Orion
Nebula's proximity to Earth,

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allow for an excellent view
of these fascinating objects.

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Although proplyds may appear
to be only humble smudges,

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some of them are in fact the
seeds of solar systems to come.

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This is Dr. J
signing off for the Hubblecast.

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Once again, nature has surprised us
beyond our wildest imagination...

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Hubblecast is produced
by ESA / Hubble

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at the European
Southern Observatory in Germany.

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The Hubble mission is a project
of international cooperation

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between NASA and
the European Space Agency.

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Now that you've caught up with Hubble

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make sure to get the
latest from the ground too.

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The ESOCast highlights the best of
the European Southern Observatory

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and its powerful telescopes that
observe from high in the Chilean Andes

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at the southern hemisphere's best known
sites for astronomical observations.