Amazing ESO photo shows Orion's hidden fiery ribbon
A vivid new image provided by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) captured what appears to be a fiery ribbon flowing throughout the Orion constellation.
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As such wavelengths are unable to be seen by the naked eye, this image uses special technology to capture an orange glow coming from particles of interstellar dust.
Astronomers need special tools to obtain these images, which can only be seen as sub-millimeter wavelengths of light. This picture was captured by the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) in Chile.
The APEX telescope had a sub-millimeter-wavelength camera named LABOCA, which was located 5,000 meters above sea level. LABOCA was a perfect tool for this type of imaging as it's located at a high enough altitude in the Chilean Andes, according to ESO.
The picture shows just part of a much larger formation called the Orion Molecular Cloud. According to a statement from ESO, this bigger structure is "a rich melting pot of bright nebulae, hot young stars and cold dust clouds," and is located 1350 light-years from Earth.
The image also captured the Orion Nebula, which differs from the fiery ribbon in that it can be seen by the human eye. Orion's Nebula is typically thought of as the fuzzy middle star in Orion's sword, but also serves a useful purpose. The area is a baby star incubator and is the closest massive star formation to Earth.