The Orion Nebula or M42 is a diffuse nebula located in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 ± 20 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across with an association of about 2,800 stars.
The Orion Nebula is one of the most observed objects in the night sky, and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust.
The Orion Nebula contains a very young open cluster, known as the Trapezium due to the asterism of its primary four stars. The stars of the Trapezium, along with many other stars, are still in their early years.
The entirety of the Orion Nebula extends across a 1° region of the sky, and includes neutral clouds of gas and dust, associations of stars, ionized volumes of gas, and reflection nebulae.
The gas in the molecular cloud displays a range of velocities and turbulence, particularly around the core region. Relative movements are up to 10 km/s, with local variations of up to 50 km/s and possibly more. Within about 100,000 years, most of the gas and dust will be ejected. The remains will form a young open cluster, a cluster of bright, young stars surrounded by wispy filaments from the former cloud.
INSTRUMENT GPU 160/1280 F/8 triplet APO
CAMERA Canon EOS 60Da
MOUNT Uma
GUIDING Lacerta MGen Autoguider
EXPOSURE TIME 50x7min 25x3min 20x30s iso 800
LOCATION Gyöngyös, Hungary
DATE 2015.01.-02
