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 in this image, which is an image ratio of images obtained with TIMMI2 at wavelengths of 10.3 µm and 20.0µm. They show in some detail the structures around the compact sources and the extended thermal emission from the dust. It illustrates how the temperature of the dust in this area varies. The brighter areas are the hotter ones.

Technical information: this image shows the observed 20.0 µm to 10.3 µm brightness ratio and hence the distribution of the colour temperature. The lowest observed ratio corresponds to the highest temperature (a de-reddened colour temperature of about 460K, or +190 °C); it occurs at the location of the BN object .