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Credit & Copyright: R. Jay Gabany
Explanation:
Few cosmic vistas can excite the imagination like
The Great Nebula in
Orion.
Visible as a faint, bland celestial smudge
to the naked-eye,
the nearest large star-forming region sprawls across this
sharp colorful
telescopic image.
Designated
M42
in the Messier Catalog, the Orion Nebula's glowing gas and dust surrounds
hot,
young stars.
About 40 light-years across, M42 is at the edge of an immense
interstellar
molecular cloud
only 1,500 light-years away that lies
within the same spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy as the Sun.
Including dusty bluish reflection nebula
NGC 1977, also known as
the Running Man nebula at left in the frame,
the natal nebulae represent only a small fraction of our
galactic neighborhood's
wealth of star-forming material.
Within the well-studied stellar nursery,
astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous
infant
solar systems.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: M 42 - Orion Nebula
Publications with words: M 42 - Orion Nebula
See also:
- APOD: 2025 August 13 Á Trapezium: In the Heart of Orion
- APOD: 2025 April 20 Á The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared
- APOD: 2024 November 4 Á M42: The Great Nebula in Orion
- APOD: 2024 September 10 Á Horsehead and Orion Nebulas
- Trapezium: At the Heart of Orion
- APOD: 2023 October 10 Á Hidden Orion from Webb
- Orion and the Running Man