Multiple views of the Flame Nebula region as seen with the DSS2, VISTA and APEX

This video shows the Flame Nebula and its surroundings at different wavelengths of light.

The first image was created from photographs in visible light forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The second image was taken in infrared light with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. Finally, radio observations conducted with the SuperCam instrument on the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) on Chile’s Chajnantor Plateau are added on top of VISTA’s image.

The Flame Nebula is the large feature on the left. The smaller feature on the right is the reflection nebula NGC 2023. The iconic Horsehead Nebula is visible on the top right of NGC 2023. The three objects are part of the Orion cloud, a giant gas structure located between 1300 and 1600 light-years away.

The radio observations were part of the APEX Large CO Heterodyne Orion Legacy Survey (ALCOHOLS), which looked at the radiation emitted by carbon monoxide (CO) in the Orion cloud to map stellar nurseries. The colours indicate the velocity of the gas, with the red clouds in the background receding faster than the yellow ones in the foreground.