The Great Orion Nebula (M42) is visible to the naked eye as a fuzzy patch in the middle of Orion's sword. It's called the "great" one because there are other nebulae in Orion.

What astronomers call the Orion Nebula is just the central part of a larger cloud that stretches across several hundred light years. Four bright stars in a parallogram near the nebula's center form the so-called Trapezium. They're the spotlights that let us see this celestial show. These hot young stars heat up the surrounding gas clouds, causing the nebula to emit light.

The Orion Nebula is full of hot, bright blue stars. It's an area of active star formation. The Hubble Space Telescope has found protoplanetary disks of gas and dust around some of these stars. These disks are about twice the size of our solar system, and may eventually condense to form exoplanets or binary stars.

M42 is a veritable catalog of different object types, including multiple stars, reflection nebulae, and emission nebulae. Try to view the Great Orion Nebula whenever you can, with whatever you've got: telescope, binoculars, or your eyes. The wealth of detail visible in this nebula is outstanding. The intricate wisps, shapes, and the contrast between brighter and darker regions will never cease to amaze you.

Click here to see if this object is visible in your sky tonight.