A Star is Born: Photos from the Planck Satellite

Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is home to billions of stars, laced through with clouds of gas and dust known as the interstellar medium.

Different views of Orion

Orion as seen in three of Planck's wavelength channels (left panels), and as a three-colour image

The Perseus Constellation

A region where fewer stars are forming near the constellation of Perseus, illustrates how the structure and distribution of the interstellar medium can be distilled from the images obtained with Planck.

Part of the constellation of Orion as seen by Planck

A region of the sky centered on the constellation of Perseus as seen in visible light. The image shows the California Nebula (centered) and the Severn Sisters, of Pleiades (bottom left.)

Perseus as viewed by Orion

The image shows the California Nebula (center) and the Seven Sisters, of Pleiades (bottom left). While this regions is relatively empty in visible light, it is laced through with cold dust when seen by Planck

Glacitc Web of Dust

The reddish tones correspond to temperatures as cold as 12 degrees above absolute zero, and whitish tones to significantly warmer ones (a few tens of degrees above absolute zero) in regions where massive stars are currently forming. Overall, the image shows local dust structures within 500 light years of the Sun.