Hubble Space Telescope: NASA shares stunning view of Orion Nebula's colourful celestial cloudscape

M42, also known as the Orion Nebula, is a luminous region of space in the constellation Orion that has been recognised throughout human history for its role as a star nursery and was revered as the "cosmic fire of creation" by the Maya of Mesoamerica.

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520 exposures. Over a billion pixels. One mind-blowing image!

This Hubble image shows the stunning Orion Nebula, which is the closest large star-forming region to Earth.

Discover more: https://t.co/ALXOqXB9bg pic.twitter.com/e3Szk9o4Vr

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) August 13, 2022

Because to its proximity to Earth (1,500 light-years), the nebula has a moderately brilliant apparent magnitude of 4. Located just below Orion's belt, M42 is bright enough to be seen without a telescope and provides a fantastic view of star formation. For the finest experience, go in January.

The Mayan were on to something when they compared the Orion Nebula to the cosmic fire of creation. Numerous new stars are being formed in the nebula's massive cloud of dust and gas. The nebula's four big newborn stars reside in its bright core area. It is because of their trapezoidal arrangement that the four massive stars are known as the Trapezium. Because of the intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by these stars, the surrounding nebula is being carved away, and hundreds of newborn stars are having their development stymied.

The Orion Nebula has never been seen so clearly as in this stunning Hubble photograph. This mosaic has nearly a billion individual pixels and was constructed from 520 separate Hubble observations taken at varying wavelengths of light.

Although most of the nebula was captured by Hubble, certain gaps in its coverage were filled in using ground-based photos. Hydrogen is represented by the orange hue, oxygen by the green, sulphur by the red, and infrared observations by the blue.