Photo Credit: NASA/ESA M. Robberto (StSci/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team
This beautiful object is the brightest Nebula visible from the Northern Hemisphere of our Earth. The Orion Nebula, also known as M42 is a vast interstellar nursery, about 1500 light years away in the constellation Orion. Stars are forming in this cloud of molecular dust and gas. As they blaze into life, they clear out the surrounding areas and form beautiful folds, pillars and swirls in the surrounding dust and gas. This picture also includes M43, the smaller, bright area in the upper left.
Amazingly, the Orion Nebula is visible with the naked eye as a fuzzy "star" just below Orion's belt. I always look forward to seeing it. Binoculars bring out the shape of this object and telescopes really crank up the "WOW" factor. You will not see a finer object in a telescope without going south of the equator. It fills the view in an eyepiece. In fact, the picture you see here covers an area of sky equivalent to the size of the full moon! I'll have a sky chart for you soon so you can find the Orion Nebula too. Stay tuned!
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