The Orion Nebula (M42) is the nearest large stellar nursery, a glowing cloud in Orion’s sword where massive stars are being born.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 1,340 light-years (412 pc) |
| its light left it | 1,340 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 39 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Orion Nebula (M42)
The Orion Nebula is an emission nebula, or HII region: hydrogen gas stripped of its electrons by the ultraviolet light of a small group of very hot young stars called the Trapezium. As the electrons recombine the gas glows, red from hydrogen and green-blue from oxygen. What we see is a bright blister on the near face of a much larger, dark molecular cloud, the Orion Molecular Cloud, out of which the young stars have broken.
It is the closest place where stars far heavier than the Sun are forming, which makes it a laboratory for star birth. The Hubble Space Telescope found many young stars wrapped in discs of gas and dust, silhouetted against the glow or being evaporated by the Trapezium’s light: planetary systems caught in the act of forming. Infrared telescopes see further still, into the dense cloud behind, where stars are forming that visible light cannot reach.
It is visible to the naked eye as the fuzzy middle star of Orion’s sword.
What you see in the piece
Its gas glows by its own emission, ionised by the hot stars inside it, so it keeps its colour from afar; switch to infrared and the dark cloud behind it lights up as warm dust.
Measured or modelled
The glowing volume in the piece is a modelled extent; the real nebula is a thin, irregular skin on a much larger cloud.
Questions
How far away is the Orion Nebula?
The Orion Nebula is 1,340 light-years (412 pc) from the Sun, which makes it the nearest region where massive stars are forming.
Can you see the Orion Nebula with the naked eye?
Yes. It is the fuzzy patch in the middle of Orion’s sword, below the three stars of the belt, and binoculars show it as a small glowing cloud.