Sword of Orion
An Australian amateur astronomer, Mr Michael Sidonio, 43, is a very happy man this week after winning a science photography competition with this picture entitled, ‘A Kaleidoscope of Dust and Gas in Orion’.
Mr Sidonio drove deep into the countryside of New South Wales, Australia, to escape the lights of big cities, and trained his camera into the clear night sky. Using a very slow exposure of 12.5 hours, he managed to reveal the beautiful swirling mass of stars, dust and gas that make up the Sword of Orion, situated 1500 light years away.
This formation is known as a "stellar nursery" because it is where thousands of new stars are born, and the explosion of colours are normally invisible to the naked eye. Ultra violet radiation emitted deep inside by the stars produce the red hues, and the blue-grey areas are formed from huge clouds of fine dust particles.
Mr Sidonio drove deep into the countryside of New South Wales, Australia, to escape the lights of big cities, and trained his camera into the clear night sky. Using a very slow exposure of 12.5 hours, he managed to reveal the beautiful swirling mass of stars, dust and gas that make up the Sword of Orion, situated 1500 light years away.
This formation is known as a "stellar nursery" because it is where thousands of new stars are born, and the explosion of colours are normally invisible to the naked eye. Ultra violet radiation emitted deep inside by the stars produce the red hues, and the blue-grey areas are formed from huge clouds of fine dust particles.
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