ESO drops phenomenal new photos of Orion's wild Flame Nebula

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released a new video showing images of the Flame Nebula in various spectra.

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The Flame Nebula is found in Orion Constellation, which houses other beautiful cosmic objects like the Horsehead Nebula, visible in the picture above. A few years back, Thomas Stanke, a former ESO astronomer, used the SuperCam instrument at the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) to observe Orion.

"As astronomers like to say, whenever there is a new telescope or instrument around, observe Orion: there will always be something new and interesting to discover!" said Stanke.

The observations comprised part of the APEX Large CO Heterodyne Orion Legacy Survey (ALCOHOLS), looking at the radio waves emitted in the clouds of the Orion Constellation by carbon monoxide (CO). The ESO has combined imagery from its Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) and the Digitized Sky Survey 2, using radio, infrared and visible light images to give a detailed view of the Flame Nebula.

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The Flame Nebula region as seen with APEX and VISTA.

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The Flame Nebula region as seen with APEX and the DSS2.

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The Flame Nebula region as seen with APEX.