Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Explanation:TheGreat Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearbystarbirth region, is one the most famous of allastronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of animmenseinterstellarmolecular cloudonly 1500light-yearsaway. In the featured deep image inassigned colorshighlighted by emission inhydrogen, wisps and sheets ofdustand gas are particularly evident. TheGreat Nebula in Orioncan be found with theunaided eyenear theeasily identifiablebelt of three stars in the popularconstellationOrion. In addition to housing a brightopen clusterof stars known as theTrapezium, theOrion Nebulacontains manystellar nurseries. These nurseries contain muchhydrogengas, hot young stars,proplyds, andstellar jetsspewing material at high speeds. Also known asM42, theOrion Nebulaspans about 40light yearsand is located in the samespiral armofour Galaxyas theSun.Tomorrow's picture:open space