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Bode's Galaxy and Cigar Galaxy

Galaxy Messier 106

Horsehead Nebula in RGB

Horsehead Nebula in SHO

The Orion Nebula

The Orion Nebula (catalog name M 42 or NGC 1976) is an emission nebula in the constellation Orion. Due to the large apparent brightness of its center above 4th magnitude, the nebula is easily visible to the naked eye star-like as part of Orion's sword south of the three stars of Orion's belt. Overall it has an angular extent of about one degree.


The Orion Nebula is a subregion of the interstellar molecular cloud OMC-1 in the Orion molecular cloud complex. It consists mainly of hydrogen. Stars form in the nebula and their ionizing radiation makes the nebula glow in the visible range. It is therefore also classified as an H-II region. At a distance of about 1350 light-years, it is one of the most active star-forming regions in the Galactic neighborhood, making it a favorite object for studying star formation. It is expected to evolve into an open star cluster similar to the Pleiades.

Pleiades

Rosette Nebula

Skull Nebula