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Houses of Parliament, Sunset 02 1904

Using a telescope mounted to an airplane, astronomers have uncovered a structure in the Orion Nebula that may shed light on one of the nebula’s long-standing secrets. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

While flying more than seven miles above the surface of our planet, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) recently fixated on Earth’s nearest star-forming region: the Orion Nebula.

Based on the data collected by the jetliner, which is equipped with a 106-inch (2.7-meter) diameter telescope, researchers determined that strong stellar winds from a particularly young and active star are disrupting gas within the Orion Nebula, which is located some 1,300 light-years from Earth. These strong winds, in turn, are stifling star formation in the region.

To make their new finding, the team used the SOFIA data to create a stunning 3D view of the chaotic environment inside the nebula, a decision that also helped them uncover a newfound feature they’ve since dubbed “Orion’s Dragon.”

In total, SOFIA spent about 40 hours collecting spectroscopic observations of the Orion Nebula with a recently upgraded instrument called the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies, also known as GREAT. By collecting and combining millions of individual spectra, which measure the chemical fingerprints of light, the researchers were able to generate a three-dimensional data cube that contained both velocity and spatial information for gas within the nebula.