The Great Orion Nebula (M42)
The Orion Nebula (M42 or NGC 1976), the colorful giant, got the distinctive honor to be designated the number 42 in the Messier catalog. M42, looking like a fuzzy star, can be seen by the naked eye in the middle
Category: Nebulae
Nebulae are gigantic volumes of cosmic dust and/or gas, such as, and most of all, hydrogen and helium (the two most abundant atoms in the Universe). A cloud of this material can, when the conditions are ripe, collapse under its own gravity to create a new star or stars. Therefore, nebulae (or nebulas) are often stellar nurseries. In contrast, nebulae can also be created by an explosion of a dying star at the end of its main sequence.
Historically, all observed fuzzy objects (as opposed to pinpoint stars) were marked as nebulae, including galaxies – before they were understood to be galaxies in the early 20th century, and other deep space objects, such as globular clusters.
Nebulae are classified into: emission (such as M42), reflection (such as NGC 7023), dark (such as Barnard 33) or planetary nebulae (such as M57), or supernova remnants (such as M1).
Pacman Nebula (NGC 281)
NGC 281 is a bright emission nebula that resembles Ms. Pac-Man, more so when viewed in the visible spectrum (this photo is in narrowband). It’s more formal designations in various catalogs are NGC 281, IC 11 or Sh2-184. Objects lying on the Milky Way
The Great Wall of North America (NGC 7000)
The North America Nebula earned that name due to its shape strikingly resembling the North American continent. Pictured here is the “southern” part of the nebula, which, apart from showing what looks like the Gulf of Mexico, features a star-forming
Lagoon Nebula (M8)
The Lagoon Nebula (M8, NGC 6523 or Sharpless 25) is an emission nebula in the constellation Sagittarius, one of the few nebulae in the northern skies faintly visible by the naked eye (the other ones being, for example, the Great