Orion Nebula (Messier 42)
According to modern astronomers, the Orion Nebula is an enormous cloud of gas and dust, one of many in our Milky Way galaxy. It lies roughly 1,300 light-years from Earth.
At some 30 to 40 light-years in diameter, this great nebulous cocoon is giving birth to perhaps a thousand stars. A young open star cluster, whose stars were born together in the gas cloud and are still loosely bound by gravity, appears within the nebula. Some people refer to it as the Orion Nebula Star Cluster. In 2012, an international team of astronomers suggested this cluster in the Orion Nebula might have a black hole at its heart.
Through small telescopes you can see the four brightest stars in the Orion Nebula, known as the Trapezium. The light of the young, hot Trapezium stars illuminate the Orion Nebula. These stars are only a million or so years old, babies on the scale of star lifetimes.
But most of the stars in this emerging cluster are veiled behind the Orion Nebula itself, the great stellar nursery in Orion’s Sword.
The Orion Nebula appears to the eye as a tiny, hazy spot. But it’s a vast stellar nursery, a place where new stars are forming (EarthSky.org)
Photograghers: Lio and Jo
Date & Time: 01 February 2023/ 12:30MN
Location: Baguio City
Photogragh: 20 pictures stacked
