Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  NGC 2174  ·  NGC 2175
The Monkey Head Nebula, Lee Harris
The Monkey Head Nebula
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The Monkey Head Nebula

The Monkey Head Nebula, Lee Harris
The Monkey Head Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

The Monkey Head Nebula

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Description

The Monkey Head Nebula is an emission nebula located in the constellation Orion, the Hunter.

The nebula is an H II region, a large cloud of ionised gas in which new stars are being formed. The low-density cloud is a site of intense star formation.

The Monkey Head Nebula lies about 6,400 light years from Earth. It is associated with the open cluster NGC 2175. It has the designation NGC 2174 in the New General Catalogue.



The Monkey Head Nebula is located in the same region of the sky as the famous Orion Nebula, one of the brightest diffuse nebulae in the night sky.

The Orion Nebula (Messier 42) was the first known H II region.

As the name suggests, it also lies in Orion constellation. However, while M42 lies in Orion’s Sword, the Monkey Head can be found above Betelgeuse, near Orion’s head

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The Monkey Head Nebula, Lee Harris