Journey to The Orion Nebula | Hubble Space Telescope

Journey to The Orion Nebula | Hubble Space Telescope

This sequence zooms on three ground-based images and ends up with a Hubble image of Messier 42 (M42)—the Orion Nebula. Packed into the center of this region are bright lights of the Trapezium stars, the four heftiest stars in the Orion Nebula. Ultraviolet light unleashed by these stars is carving a cavity in the nebula and disrupting the growth of hundreds of smaller stars. 

Distance: 1,500 light years

This stellar nursery, Messier 42, popularly called the Orion Nebula, has been known to many cultures throughout human history. The nebula is only 1,500 light-years away, making it the closest large star-forming region to Earth and giving it a relatively bright apparent magnitude of 4. Because of its brightness and prominent location just below Orion’s belt, M42 can be spotted with the naked eye, while offering an excellent peek at stellar birth for those with telescopes. It is best observed during January.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

Duration: 2 minutes

Release Date: Jan. 11, 2006

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