This object is a tiny bright blue reflection nebula located 1500 light years away in the constellation of Orion. The nebula is 1.5 minutes across. The source star, well hidden in the nebula, is the V380 Orionis multiple variable star system.
The dark area in the center of this nebula has been described as a keyhole or a triangle, but I think it looks more like a capital "T". It was previously thought that this T was a dark nebula - a patch of dust and gas blocking the background light. But recent work within the past 10 years has determined that this T shape is simply empty space, cleared of dust and gas. The exact cause of this phenomenon is still being investigated.
On the left side of the image are 3 small reddish nebula. These are Herbig-Haro (HH) objects and are unrelated to NGC 1999 and V380. From top to bottom are HH2, HH1 and HH3. These were the first HH objects to be discovered. They are caused by a bi-polar jet streaming from a star located between HH2 and HH1, seen as a faint white smudge in the image. There are 3 such jets in this area, as I detailed on a previous image (
https://www.astrobin.com/375580/B/?nc=user). Perhaps one of these jets is also responsible for clearing out the gas and dust which led to the creation of this nebula.
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