Image:M42proplyds.jpg

From http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/1994/24/images/b/formats/full_jpg.jpg, image from the Hubble Space Telescope.

From the press release:

A Hubble Space Telescope view of a small portion of the Orion Nebula reveals five young stars. Four of the stars are surrounded by gas and dust trapped as the stars formed, but were left in orbit about the star. These are possibly protoplanetary disks, or "proplyds," that might evolve on to agglomerate planets. The proplyds which are closest to the hottest stars of the parent star cluster are seen as bright objects, while the object farthest from the hottest stars is seen as a dark object. The field of view is only 0.14 light-years across.

The Orion Nebula star-birth region is 1,500 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation Orion the Hunter.

The image was taken on 29 December 1993 with the HST's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

Credit: C.R. O'Dell/Rice University; NASA

[edit] Licensing

This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and the European Space Agency. Hubble material is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that NASA and ESA is credited as the source of the material. The material was created for NASA by STScI under Contract NAS5-26555 and for ESA by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre. [1] or [2].