The area of M42 known as
The Trapezium is an incredibly complex environment. It includes the incredibly brilliant blue supergiants Theta 1 Orionis A, B, C, and D, many
Protoplanetary Disks (proplyds), ferocious stellar winds,
Herbig-Haro objects, and fluorescing gasses. Hydrogen is the primary gaseous constituent, but a wide array of organic compounds, including Formaldehyde, Hydrogen Sulfide, Methanol, and Water,
have also been identified. The
LL Orionis bow shock, made famous by the
2006 Hubble Space Telescope image of the region, is the result of the high speed stellar wind from the young star LL Orionis crashing into the slower moving outflow from the Trapezium region.
This region's proximity to us, its visibility, and the dynamic processes it contains makes it one of the most heavily studied objects in our sky. No less than
1698 papers in the Astrophysics Data System mention M42 or the Trapezium in their abstracts. The inset showing Θ1 Ori shows a region of space only .41 light years across. To put that into perspective, each pixel on the color image would encompass nearly 9 orbits of Neptune. If the sun were at the center of the Trapezium, Alpha Centauri would be outside this image. The skies of a hypothetical planet in this region would have some blindingly brilliant stars. The skies would be flooded with both their light and the overwhelming light of fluorescing nebulosity, such that a dark sky would likely never occur. Of course, while such a scene may exist, there are probably no astronomers there to observe it; the intense ultraviolet radiation doubtless sterilizes everything in the region.
Θ1 Orionis A, B, C, D, E, and F are all multiple star systems, as
this page from the excellent
Astrophotographer's Guide to the Deep Sky illustrates. Between them they include no less than 17 stars.
Image acquired at Prairie Sky Observatory and Sugar Grove Observatory, facilities of Twin City Amateur Astronomers (tcaa.us).
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