The Orion Nebula - A stellar nursery
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NASA
HII Regions - Stellar Nurseries
Hidden in the sword of Orion the hunter, a weapon and symbol of death,
lies the birthplace of new stars - the stunning Orion Nebula, one of
the many objects catalogued by Charles Messier in the 18th century
during his hunt for comets. Messier noted the position of the nebula
because he didn't want to mistake it for a comet. Too bad he didn't
notice the spectacular event taking place in the nebula, which he
named M42. Nestled in the center of M42 is a group of stars, known as
the Trapezium, which have formed from the gas in the nebula.
The stars of the Trapezium are young blue stars. It is their
energy which makes the nebula glow. The Orion nebula is more or less
circular in shape, and it glows with a characteristic red color. All
HII regions have this color. There are many HII regions with young
stars in the disk of our Galaxy.
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