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Orion Nebula

Orion Nebula

This magnificent image from NASA’s Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes shows the Orion Nebula in an explosion of infrared, ultraviolet, and visible-light colors. It was 'painted' by hundreds of baby stars on a canvas of gas and dust, with intense ultraviolet light and strong stellar winds as brushes. At the heart of the nebula, in the brightest part of the image, is a group of four monstrously massive stars, collectively called the Trapezium. Located 1,500 light-years from Earth, the Orion Nebula is the brightest point in the sword of the Hunter constellation.

Image Credit: NASA

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Last Updated
Apr 17, 2023
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NASA Hubble Mission Team

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A spiral galaxy seen directly from the side, such that its disk looks like a narrow diagonal band across the image. A band of dark dust covers the disk in the center most of the way out to the ends, and the disk glows around that. In the center of the galaxy, a whitish circle of light bulges out above and below the disk. Each end of the disk curves slightly. The background is black and mostly empty.
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