The Orion Nebula

The Cosmic Fire of Creation

The Orion Nebula
is one of the most photographed objects in the night sky.

At a distance of 1300 lightyears, the Orion Nebula is one of the brightest nebulae. It is situated underneath Orion's belt, making it easy to spot even with the unaided eye.

"Remarkably recognizable to astrophotographers today, this stunning image of the star forming Orion Nebula was captured in 1901 by American astronomer and telescope designer George Ritchey. His hand written notes indicate a 50 minute long exposure that ended at dawn and a reflecting telescope aperture of 24 inches masked to 18 inches to improve the sharpness of the recorded image. Ritchey's plates from over a hundred years ago preserve astronomical data and can still be used for exploring astrophysical processes.

Astronomy Picture of the Day, 1901 Photograph: The Orion Nebula
A 1901 photo of the Orion Nebula taken by astronomer George Ritchey.
A 2012 photo of the Orion nebula taken by astrophotographer Brian Davis.
"Astrophotographer Brian Davis shared this photo with SPACE.com last month, though he actually took the image during a 3.5-hour stargazing session from a driveway in the suburbs of Sumter, S.C., on Jan. 1, 2012. The iconic Running Man Nebula, or NGC 1977, is also visible toward the left of the image."

NBC News, You've never seen the stunning Orion Nebula like this before

A Stellar Nursery

The Orion Nebula is what's known as a stellar nursery--a region of space that is a hotbed of star formation. Due to its abundance in materials, gas and dust gets drawn together by gravity which kicks off the star formation process.

The Trapezium cluster is a tight cluster of stars at the core of the Orion nebula. Originally discovered by Galileo, this star cluster is a center of star formation fueled by the rich reserves of gas and dust in the surrounding nebula.
These two images show a protoplanetary disk around a new star in the Orion Nebula. As gas and dust coalesces around a newborn star, matter comes together through the force of gravity to form planets. Our own solar system began this way 4.5 billion years ago.
NASA.gov, Messier 42 (The Orion Nebula)