NASA Shares Stunning 3D View Of Orion Nebula To Mark Chinese Lunar Year

Welcome to the year of the Dragon

International News Desk: Chinese New Year is one of the most important and culturally significant festivals marked with great pomp and zeal by Chinese communities across the world. This year, the Chinese New Year Lunar, also called New Year started on February 10. It is being celebrated as the “Year of the Wood Dragon” and marks the end of winter and welcomes the spring season. To mark the onset of the Lunar New Year, NASA shared a three-dimensional and rotating image of a nebula that “appears to be in the shape of a dragon”. It was created using data collected from the SOFIA mission.

NASA wrote in the caption, “Welcome to the year of the Dragon. This three-dimensional view of the Orion Nebula – Earth’s closest star-formation nursery – was created using data from the SOFIA mission. It reveals the detailed structure of the nebula, including a “bubble” that has been blown clear of gas and dust by a powerful stellar wind. In this way, massive stars can regulate star formation around them, and SOFIA helped astronomers better understand this effect.⁣”