Photo # 2 (Feb 2010)

THE FLAME NEBULA IN INFRARED

The Word of God is the universal and invisible Light, cognizable by the senses, that emits its blaze in the Sun, Moon, Planets, and other Stars.”

- Albert Pike

Credit & Copyright: ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA; Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

What lights up the Flame Nebula? Fifteen hundred light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark dust lanes, appears, on the left, like a billowing fire. But fire, the rapid acquisition of oxygen, is not what makes this Flame glow. Rather the bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion visible just above the nebula, shines energetic light into the Flame that knocks electrons away from the great clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there. Much of the glow results when the electrons and ionized hydrogen recombine. The above false-color picture of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) was taken in infrared light, where a young star cluster becomes visible. The Flame Nebula is part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a star-forming region that includes the famous Horsehead Nebula, visible above on the far right.

The nebulas, galaxies and individual stars in the heavens speak to us as points of reference and awareness, reminding us of the Infinite Source of consciousness - far greater than ourselves, yet in which each of us is an integral, participating, contributing point of consciousness.

- Daniel Benor, MD