The Orion Nebula is easily visible with the naked eye as the middle star in
Orion's "sword".
In this image M 42 (NGC 1976) and M 43 (NGC 1982) appear as one large object.
The blue region on the right consists of the reflection nebulae
NGC 1973, 1975 and 1977.
The NOAO image below more clearly shows the separation between M 42
(the larger one) and M 43.
The Orion Nebula is the nearest star formation region to the Earth and
consequently particularly well studied.
Despite this, star formation is not all that well understood.
While these nebulae themselves are huge (many light years across) a nascent
solar system is tiny by comparison and hence invisible from the Earth.
The HST
images below show for the first time small regions
that seem to be on the verge of collapsing into stars and
perhaps planetary systems.
The Orion Nebula is actually just part of a much
larger cloud that covers most of the
constellation of Orion (including the region around the
Horsehead Nebula).
NN 248k gif
HST 187k gif
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