Spitzer Sees Stars in Orion's Sword

NASA has just released a new image depicting the Sword in the Orion's Nebula. The exquisite image shows an area of intense stellar formation known as a stellar nursery, which features thousands of stars. The gas around the structure is glowing because it's ionized by stellar winds all around.

In addition to the thousands of new, blue stars in the structure, there are also countless other protostars. These are in fact massive clouds of molecular hydrogen gas that are in the process of collapsing under their own weight to produce new stars.

Most of the stars within this beautiful nebula are about the size of the Sun, but some are much more massive. When these behemoths reach the end of their burning cycle, they will explode into violent supernovae, dispersing and stirring the gas in their surroundings.

In this image, the Orion Nebula is the central, luminous part. Spitzer also managed to catch some of its surroundings, showing the influence that intense stellar formation has on the cosmic environment.