Orion Nebula - 1060 Words

The Orion Nebula contains one of the brightest star clusters in the night sky. With a magnitude of 4, this nebula is easily visible from the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months. It is surprising, therefore, that this region was not documented until 1610 by a French lawyer named Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. On March 4, 1769, Charles Messier inducted the Orion Nebula, M42, into his list of stellar objects. Then, in 1771, Messier released his list of objects for its first publication in Memoires de lAcademie.1 The Orion Nebula is one of the closest stellar regions to the Earth. Using parallax measurements, it has been estimated that this nebula is only 1,500 light years away. In addition, the Orion Nebula is a†¦show more content†¦On April 9, 1998, Cornell University astrophysicist Martin Harwit published his discovery of the presence of massive amounts of water in the Orion Nebula. This was the first time that water has been found in a star-forming region. The find demonstrates that water plays a vital role in star formation. In addition, this discovery implies that water is prevalent in space. Harwit speculates that the water acts as a coolant, by carrying heat away from the condensing clouds. It is believed that this process is necessary to slow down the particles in order to allow the compression of the particles into new stars. 6 The discovery of water in the Orion Nebula will undoubtedly provide the basis for further study. More specifically, it will prompt scientists to search for water in other regions of space at different stages of star formation. Then, if water is present in each, it may suggest that the oceans of Earth are older than even the planet that now contains them. 7 Page 3 Several unresolved problems remain concerning the Orion Nebula. The fate of the protoplanetary disks, for example, is presently impossible to predict. Without a more detailed understanding of how planets actually form, it cannot be assum ed that the events within the Orion Nebula are analogous to the events that led to the formation of the planets in the solar system. Furthermore, the detection of water in the nebula has revealed the need to revise the theory of star formation toShow MoreRelatedInvestigating the History of the Universe and the Big Bang Theory674 Words   |  3 Pagescollapse along this direction. The cloud collapses into a flattened disk with a central bulge containing most of the mass, and it is in this central objects that the star will be formed. Life Cycle of a Star A star is born in a high-density nebula and condenses into gas and dust and contracts under its own gravity. Next, a region of condensing matter will begin to heat up and star to glow, forming protostars. The temperature at this point is 5 million degrees centigrade. 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