The Orion Nebula

A star nursery your eyes can see

You need binoculars

The Orion Nebula: clouds of gas lit from inside by newborn stars.

The numbers

Distance: 1,500light-years
How far it stretches: 24light-years
What it is: A region where stars are bornAmong the closest to us
Where it is: In Orion's SwordBelow the Belt

To get an idea

It stretches across about twenty light-years: it is not an object, it is a region of space.

It is one of the star-forming regions closest to the Solar System.

Fun facts

These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.

Inside it there are newborn stars that light up all the gas around them.
Old books called it the Great Orion Nebula, which is a much grander name.
In astronomers' catalogs it is listed as Messier 42 or NGC 1976.
With a small telescope you can make out a little group of young stars at its center.
For a great many people it is the first deep-sky object they ever manage to see.

Test yourself

The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.

Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book

Where is the Orion Nebula?

Question 2 of 5

What happens inside that nebula?

Question 3 of 5

Can you see it with the naked eye?

Question 4 of 5

How far does it stretch?

Question 5 of 5

Why is it studied so much?

Riddles

I hang from the hunter's sword, just below his belt, and to the naked eye you can tell right away I am not a star. Inside me, suns are being born. What am I?

I am not an object but a place: I stretch across about twenty light-years and I hold clouds, columns of dust and newborn stars just switched on. What am I?

I am almost everyone's front door: whoever points binoculars at the deep sky for the first time usually starts with me. What am I?

Try it yourself

Activity 1

Point binoculars at it, held steady: from a smudge it becomes a glowing puff with a few stars inside. It is the view that convinces anyone.

Activity 2

Look at it out of the corner of your eye: like all faint objects, it shows up better if you do not stare straight at it.

The words

asterism: A recognizable pattern of stars that is not a whole constellation.

Sources: Wikidata (Q13884), Wikipedia (Nebulosa di Orione).