Orion Nebula
What is Orion Nebula?
Nebulae· Distance ~1,344 ly. The nearest star factory visible to the naked eye — a glowing patch below Orion's belt where thousands of infant stars are forming right now.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Orion Nebula is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=orion nebula — location and time set automatically, no login.
Its place in the sky
A nebula, in the direction of Orion, spanning about 85 arcminutes of sky — 2.7 times the width of the full Moon.
Distance and scale
| Distance | ~1,344 ly |
|---|---|
| Size | ~24 ly |
| What | stellar nursery |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Discovery and name
First noted by Peiresc in 1610; Draper's 1880 photograph of it was the first deep-sky image ever taken.
Frequently asked
- How far is Orion Nebula from Earth?
- ~1,344 ly.
- What kind of object is Orion Nebula?
- stellar nursery.
- Where in the sky is Orion Nebula?
- In the direction of Orion.
- Where is Orion Nebula in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
The first to draw the nebula — 1610 and 1656
Though the Orion Nebula is visible to the naked eye, Galileo never recorded it. The first to recognise it as a nebula through a telescope was the Frenchman Peiresc in 1610, and in 1656 Huygens made the first drawing of its shape, showing three central stars (the Trapezium) and the bright cloud around them — among the oldest astronomical drawings of anything other than stars.
Into the nineteenth century the nature of nebulae was debated — distant clusters of stars, or true gas? In 1864 Huggins split the nebula's light with a spectroscope, saw only a few bright lines unlike a star's, and settled that it was gas; in 1880 Draper took the first photograph of it. Today the nebula's image is the emblem of star birth, but confirming that it was not made of stars took 250 years.
The nebula in depth
The Orion Nebula is the nearest star factory visible to the naked eye — the hazy glow in Orion's sword, 1,344 light-years away, building thousands of infant stars right now.
It is lit by the Trapezium, four newborn hot stars whose ultraviolet sets the whole cloud fluorescing. Hubble and JWST have photographed hundreds of planet-forming disks (proplyds) inside it.
The Sun was born in a cloud like this 4.6 billion years ago — looking at Orion is close to looking at our own baby picture. Find the sword below the belt in the winter Sky view.
The nebula is a sculpture in progress, carved by the Trapezium — four newborn hot stars whose ultraviolet light makes the gas glow and erode. Hubble and JWST have photographed hundreds of proplyds inside it: planet-forming disks caught in the act. The solar system was born in just such a place 4.6 billion years ago — this is, in effect, our own baby picture.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.