Great Nebula

Combining infrared and radio frequencies, this image of the glorious, green Great Nebula of Orion hints at the massively chaotic stellar nursery hiding inside the Orion Molecular Cloud. The picture was made as part of the widest-ranging census ever of star formation around the nebula.

"We now know of more than 110 individual jets from this one region of the Milky Way," said Professor Chris Davis of the Joint Astronomy Centre, who had pulled together international colleagues to make the census, in a statement. "Each jet is traveling at tens or even hundreds of miles per second; the jets extend across many trillions of miles of interstellar space."

By measuring the jets, the researchers were able to find many of the stars that had created the phenomena. The star census may also provide some insight into how quickly stars are born and mature.