September 14, 1999
The Great Nebula in Orion is a colorful place.
Visible to the unaided eye as a
fuzzy patch in the
constellation of Orion,
this image
taken with the
Big Throughput Camera shows the
Orion Nebula to be a busy neighborhood of
young stars, hot gas, and dark dust.
The power behind much of the
Orion Nebula (M42) is the
Trapezium -
four of the brightest stars in the nebula.
The eerie blue glow surrounding the
bright stars pictured here is their own
starlight reflected by nearby
dust.
Hot oxygen and
hydrogen gases cause the
extended green and pink glows, respectively.
Dark brown
dust filaments
cover much of the region.
The whole
Orion Nebula cloud complex, which
includes the
Horsehead Nebula,
will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.