Orion Nebula
What is Orion Nebula?
Nebulae· Distance ~1,344 ly. A vast cloud of gas below Orion's Belt that shows as a hazy patch even to the naked eye. Here, 1,344 light-years away, many new stars are being born right now.
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Its place in the sky
A nebula, in the direction of Orion, spanning about 85 arcminutes of sky — 2.7 times the width of the full Moon.
Distance and scale
| Distance | ~1,344 ly |
|---|---|
| Size | ~24 ly |
| What | stellar nursery |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Discovery and name
First noted by Peiresc in 1610; Draper's 1880 photograph of it was the first deep-sky image ever taken.
The first people to draw the Orion Nebula, 1610 and 1656
Although the Orion Nebula can be seen with the naked eye, Galileo, one of the first to point a telescope at the sky, never recorded it. In 1610 the Frenchman Peiresc became the first to notice it through a telescope. Then in 1656 the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens made a detailed drawing of its shape. His drawing shows three stars at the centre and the bright cloud around them.
For a long time afterward, what the nebula was made of stayed a puzzle. It might be a crowd of very distant stars blurred together, or it might be real gas. In 1865 the English astronomer William Huggins spread the nebula's light into its colours like a rainbow. Unlike starlight, it showed only a few bright lines of colour, proving that the nebula is gas. In 1880 the American Henry Draper took the first photograph of it.
The nebula in depth
The Orion Nebula lies below Orion's Belt, among the stars that hang down like a sword. It is 1,344 light-years away and about 24 light-years across. From a dark site it shows as a hazy glow even to the naked eye. Thousands of stars are still being made inside this cloud of gas, which makes it a favourite place for studying how stars are born.
The nebula is lit by the Trapezium cluster at its centre. It is named for four hot, bright newborn stars arranged in a trapezoid shape. These stars pour out strong ultraviolet light, which our eyes cannot see. When that light strikes the surrounding gas, the gas gains energy and gives off light of its own, much as the gas inside a fluorescent lamp glows.
The Hubble and James Webb space telescopes have photographed hundreds of discs of gas and dust around young stars in the nebula. Planets may later form in discs like these. Scientists think the Sun, too, was born in a cloud like this about 4.6 billion years ago. On a winter night in the Sky view, look below Orion's Belt to find the nebula.
Frequently asked
- How far is Orion Nebula from Earth?
- The distance of Orion Nebula is ~1,344 ly.
- What kind of object is Orion Nebula?
- Orion Nebula is a stellar nursery.
- Where in the sky is Orion Nebula?
- Orion Nebula lies in the direction of Orion.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.