![]() ![]() The nebula is home to about 700 stars in different stages of formation. Messier 42 contains hundreds of very young stars, less than a million years old, and also protostars still embedded in dense gas cocoons. The wing extension to the south is known as the Sword, the fainter extension to the west is called the Sail, and the bright nebulous region under the Trapezium Cluster has been nicknamed the Thrust. The bright regions to the sides of the nebula are known as the Wings and the dark lane stretching from the north toward the illuminated region is called the Fish’s Mouth. Robberto ( Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Teamĭifferent parts of the Orion Nebula have been given different names. This glowing region reveals arcs and bubbles formed when stellar winds – streams of charged particles ejected by the Trapezium stars – collide with material. The temperature in the central region is up to 10,000 K and considerably lower around the edges. New stars are forming throughout the nebula. The Orion Nebula is a place of massive star formation and one of the most studied deep sky objects in our vicinity as it allows astronomers to study the process of stars forming from clouds of dust and gas and the photo-ionizing effects of massive young stars that are responsible for the nebula’s glow. The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex covers an area of more than 10 degrees, which is more than half of Orion constellation. It is part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a larger region of nebulosity that also includes the famous Horsehead Nebula, the Flame Nebula, the emission nebula Barnard’s Loop, De Mairan’s Nebula (M43), and the reflection nebula Messier 78. The nebula has a mass 2,000 times that of the Sun and contains associations of stars, reflection nebulae, neutral clouds of dust and gas, and ionized gas. Messier 42 occupies an area of 65 by 60 arc minutes of apparent sky and its spatial diameter measures 24 light years. The best time of year to observe M42 is during the winter months, when Orion is high in the sky in the evening. Orion’s Belt, formed by the bright stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka, is in the centre of the hourglass figure. Orion constellation is easy to identify for its prominent hourglass shape, with the bright supergiants Betelgeuse and Rigel at the upper left shoulder and lower right foot of the celestial Hunter. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team The Orion Nebula is a picture book of star formation, from the massive, young stars that are shaping the nebula to the pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars. These stars reside in a dramatic dust-and-gas landscape of plateaus, mountains, and valleys that are reminiscent of the Grand Canyon. Some of them have never been seen in visible light. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. This turbulent star formation region is one of astronomy’s most dramatic and photogenic celestial objects. In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula. The four stars form a trapezoidal shape and energize the surrounding nebulosity. Small telescopes at higher magnifications will reveal the four brightest stars in the Trapezium Cluster, an open cluster of young, hot, massive stars that were formed within the Orion Nebula. Covering more than a degree of apparent sky, the nebula appears over four times the size of the full Moon. The nebula can easily be seen in binoculars and small telescopes. two stars and M42) south of Orion’s Belt. The nebula appears as the fuzzy middle star in Orion’s Sword, which is formed by a vertical row of three stars (i.e. The Orion Nebula is very easy to find as it is located just below Orion’s Belt, a prominent asterism in the winter sky. The nebula has the designation NGC 1976 in the New General Catalogue. ![]() It lies at a distance of 1,344 light years from Earth and is the nearest stellar nursery to Earth. With an apparent magnitude of 4.0, the Orion Nebula is one of the brightest nebulae in the sky and is visible to the naked eye. Messier 42 (M42), the famous Orion Nebula, is an emission-reflection nebula located in the constellation Orion, the Hunter. ![]()
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