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Preferred term

Orion Nebula  

Definition

  • The Orion Nebula (M42, NGC 1976) is the best known diffuse nebula and one of the nearest region to the Sun in which stars are presently being formed. It is visible to the naked eye south of Orion's Belt as a fuzzy patch known as Orion's Sword. Lying at a distance of about 1,450 light-years in the constellation Orion, and measuring about 30 light-years across, the Orion Nebula is ionized and made visible by a small group of O stars and B stars known as the Trapezium cluster. Altogether the Orion Nebula contains about 700 stars, in various stages of formation and development. It is part of a much larger nebula called the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. (Encyclopedia of Science, by David Darling, https://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/O/OrionNeb.html)

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http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/MDL-M8N1JG1D-6

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