BN/KL complex in the Orion Nebula

This is one of a series of mid-infrared images of the BN/KL complex, a star-forming region deep inside the Orion Nebula obtained with ESO''s Thermal Infrared MultiMode Instrument (TIMMI2), mounted at the Cassegrain focus of the 3.6-m telescope on La Silla. The area is located close to the Trapezium cluster. The dust is more transparent at longer wavelengths and the complex is clearly seen on this image obtained with TIMMI2 at wavelengths of 10.3 µm. It shows in some detail the structures around the compact sources and the extended thermal emission from the dust. The brighter areas are the hotter ones. It is a mosaic image composed of 80 co-added exposures, lasting a total of 3 min, obtained with the 240 x 320 Raytheon detector array of the TIMMI2 camera. The observations were made in the night of January 27-28, 2001. Individual exposures have a scale of 0.2 arcsec/pixel and were taken with the standard chopping and nodding technique with a nodding amplitude of 30 arcsec. The colours are displayed on a logarithmic intensity scale in order to enhance the faintest structures.

Technical information: This image shows an N-band (10.3 µm) mosaic image of the Orion BN/KL Complex, composed of 80 co-added exposures, lasting a total of 3 min, obtained with the 240 x 320 Raytheon detector array of the TIMMI2 camera. The observations were made in the night of January 27-28, 2001. Individual exposures have a scale of 0.2 arcsec/pixel and were taken with the standard chopping and nodding technique with a nodding amplitude of 30 arcsec. The colours are displayed on a logarithmic intensity scale in order to enhance the faintest structures.