Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Ryan Steinberg and Family/Adam Block

The most famous of all nebulae. Galileo missed this object entirely, but William Herschel had the eerie foresight to call it "the chaotic material of future suns."It's a star forming region all right, one of the closest at a mere 1600 lightyears. There is enough material here for 10,000 stars like the sun. The bright central region is an irregular cloud about six lightyears across. Four stars in the center (the Trapezium) have recently formed and provide the energy to light up the nebula.You can find this object in the Sword of Orion, just under the three famous belt stars. Binoculars are enough. This image was taken as part of Advanced Observing Program (AOP) program at Kitt Peak Visitor Center during 2014.

Provider: NOIRLab

Image Source: https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-m42steinberg/

Curator: NSF's NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, USA

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License