M42 The Great Orion Nebula - Astrophotography Print

This is the most famous nebula in the night sky. Here a great stellar nursery forms stars from these vast clouds of gas. In the late 1700s William Herschel, a famous observational astronomer, had the eerie foresight to call it "the chaotic material of future suns." The reality is that there is enough material here for 10,000 solar-type stars. The nebula is 1,500 light years away in the direction of an outer spiral arm of our galaxy. The four stars in the center, called the Trapezium, have recently formed and their energetic prowess lights up the nebula.