“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” -William Shakespeare
But in the case of Orion, it's great because of not only how it was born, but where and when: recently, and so close to us! And that makes our views of not only the main nebula fantastic, but also of its smaller companion.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons user RawAstroData, via http://www.rawastrodata.com/dso.php?type=nebulae&id=m42.
It's all part of the great Orion molecular cloud complex, but somehow the smaller region illuminated by a single bright, young giant star has -- in many ways -- even more to offer than the larger, grander nebula we're most familiar with.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto ( Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team; full image available at http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0601a/.
Come see the second great nebula in Orion, as we complete the last of our 110 objects for Messier Monday!
More like this
I discerned huge Orion, driving wild beasts together over the field of asphodel, the very ones that he once had killed on lonely mountains, he grasped in his hands a mace of bronze, never to be broken.
-Odysseus, in the Underworld, The Odyssey
A few days back I posted a picture of the recent shuttle launch. Here's another view:
“Everyone has his dream; I would like to live till dawn, but I know I have less than three hours left. It will be night, but no matter. Dying is simple. It does not take daylight.
"...innumerable stars, thousands of double and multiple systems, clusters in one blaze with their tens of thousands of stars, and the nebulae amazing us by the strangeness of their forms and the incomprehensibility of their nature, till at last, from the limit of our senses, even thes
Somebody clearly left-right inverted one of the images surrounding "But a multi-wavelength view ..." (probably the altervista one).
Thanks for the wonderful series of "Messier Monday's" I have enjoyed every single one.
David
Thanks, Ethan, for all your time & efforts to give all of your readers something to take home & think about. I'm sure the next series will be most informative as this has been.
One thing about science is 'there is always something new to learn, discover, and ponder'.
And a belated thank-you as well. The diversity of those fuzzy things in the sky was amazing.