These images, taken through the HST's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, are
each about 167 billion miles across or 30 times the diameter of our solar
system. At the center of each is an infant star still partially
enshrouded in
a
disk of gas and dust out of this it has recently formed. The disks range in
size from two to eight times the size of our solar system and may indeed
contain
clumps of material that will someday condense into families of planets.
Hubble's ability to bring us images of such "proplyds" or "protoplanertary
disks" (that is, disks that may contain planets in the process of formation)
have given astronomers important insight into solar systems develop and
provide
a glimpse of what our solar system might have looked like about 4.5 billion
years ago. These proplyds are all located in M42 (also known as the Great
Nebula in Orion) a giant cloud of gas and dust where many new stars are
forming
about 1500 light years from earth. You can see this region of the sky
yourself
this week ! Just look in the southern sky as soon as it gets dark.
There you
will find three stars of the same brightness in a straight line. Look just
below these three stars (binoculars will help) for a small, milky patch of
light. This is M42.