M42 is a nebula, also known as the Orion Nebula, located in the constellation Orion, about 1,344 light years away from Earth¹. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with an apparent magnitude of 4.0¹. It is a large region of star formation and interstellar gas and dust, containing a young open cluster called the Trapezium Cluster, which consists of four bright stars and many fainter ones¹. The nebula also has several dark globules of dust that may form new stars in the future¹.
M42 was discovered by the French astronomer Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc in 1610, and was later observed by many other astronomers, such as Christiaan Huygens, Charles Messier, William Herschel, and John Herschel¹. It was one of the first nebulae to be photographed by Henry Draper in 1880¹. It has been extensively studied by various telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, which revealed many details of its structure and dynamics¹.
M42 has a diameter of about 24 light years and contains about 2,000 times the mass of the Sun¹. It has a temperature of about 10,000 K and a luminosity of about 100,000 times that of the Sun¹. It is part of a larger complex of nebulae that includes the De Mairan's Nebula (M43), the Running Man Nebula (NGC 1977), and the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33)¹.
Kilde: Samtale med Bing, 18.6.2023
(1) Orion Nebula - Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_nebula.
(2) M42 Duster - Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M42_Duster.
(3) M42 - Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M42.
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