The Orion Nebula is a famous and bright diffuse nebula located in the constellation Orion, containing over 700 stars in various stages of formation. It is part of the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex and was discovered in 1610 by Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc.
The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula about 30 light-years in diameter located in the constellation Orion, under Orion’s belt, 1,500 light-years from Earth. A diffuse nebula is so called because it is lost in space, is partially transparent, and has no well-defined boundaries. It is one of the brightest and most famous nebulae in the night sky, being also one of the most studied. It is also known as M42 as a reference to its Messier number.
The Orion Nebula is part of a larger body called the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, which is present throughout the constellation of Orion and contains other famous objects such as Barnard’s Bend, the Horsehead Nebula, M43, M78 and the Nebula Flame. The nebula itself covers a 10° portion of the sky, about one-tenth the size of the lunar disk.
The Orion Nebula is a stellar nursery and contains over 700 stars in various stages of formation. Being both an emission and a reflection nebula, it contains both stars that ionize the surrounding medium and molecular clouds that act as “mirrors,” reflecting light back to Earth. Emission nebulae are referred to as “HII regions,” referring to the abundant ionized hydrogen gas they contain. The HII regions are also where we can find star birth in objects called Bok globules and subsequent protoplanetary disks created around rising suns. Some of the youngest stars in the Galaxy have been observed within the confines of the Orion nebula.
Although the Orion Nebula is visible to the naked eye, none of the ancient astronomers noticed it, its discovery in 1610 has been attributed to Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, a Jesuit astronomer. Although Galileo Galilei used one of the first telescopes to observe the constellation Orion in detail that same year, he did not take note of it.
The Orion Nebula is the subject of the first astrophotography, taken by Henry Draper in 1865. This is recognized as the first time in history that deep-sky astrophotography was performed.
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