His marathon has been longer than any of ours. It's the Running Man nebula (SH2-279).

Running Man is a part of the incredible Orion nebula group...the part that makes up the sword in the constellation Orion. It's right behind the more famous display, but no less interesting.

The collection of nebulae are about 1500 light years away in our own Milky Way galaxy...which is considered pretty close. No one has really dated the formation of clouds (presumably by a star exploding in a violent supernova), but astronomers did note when the area began to glow brightly. It is thought the Orion collection wasn't really visible on Earth until 1611, when collapsing gasses ignited into stars.

Take-away fact: This nebula is the closest star-forming region to our planet. The Orion group is so bright that one can see with naked eyes the stars and just make out the fuzzy nature of the surrounding cloud.

This image shows the nebula to be a reflection nebula...meaning most of its glow is reflected light from the embedded stars. The blue and purple cloud is likely oxygen and magnesium, mixed with ash and dust. The stars are new and very bright.

Then there's the brown ash and dust floating in from the right...a little farther away from the light source and made of darker stuff.

Why call it the Running Man? Some people think the red shape looks like such a figure. It's speculative whether it looks more like a runner in this orientation, or more so when turned 90 degrees clockwise.

Just recently it was discovered that a few of the smallest "stars" in this area are actually planets in early development (proplyds). They are glowing from being bathed in UV light from the nearby superbright stars. This is pretty significant since planets elsewhere in the galaxy are rarely seen, especially by driveway telescopes like mine.

Tonight's entry was composed to David Hazeltine' tune 𝘚𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺.