Orion - dominant over the southern part of the sky grand constellation.The Orion Nebula is considered to be a glowing emission nebula, which is below the so-called "belt" of the constellation.It is on this "zone" is easy to find Orion in the sky.It consists of three white and blue stars Mintaka, cial, Alnitak.All are located on the same line and at equal angular distances from each other.This constellation is remarkable by the fact that there are a lot of huge bright stars.Star Orion seems a bit blurred.When observing it through a telescope can clearly see a hazy blur.It is called "The Great Nebula in Orion", which is a giant cloud of hot, glowing gas.
About the size of a gas cloud can be judged from the fact that from it we would have 10 thousand stars like the sun.This seems a little Orion Nebula because it is from Earth at a distance of 1340 light years.Glowing gas surrounds hot young stars some on the edge of a giant molecular clouds of interstellar.The whole system of clouds of the nebula, including the Horsehead Nebula, for 100 thousand. Years, will be scattered in the vast universe.
Astronomers believe the area around the constellation of Orion the most beautiful in the sky.This diffuse nebula is the brightest.Its surface, which extends almost 80x60 arc minutes, more than the area of the full moon four times thanks to the brilliance of about 4 magnitudes (magnitude is indicator of illumination created by celestial objects) has good visibility in the night sky.Location on the celestial equator allows you to see it almost anywhere in the world.This space object is in its diameter of about 30 light-years.With a telescope you can see that in the northern part of the passage of dust darkened strip that separates the north-eastern part of the nebula from its main body.
Orion Nebula was first described in detail in 1656 Huygens, though its discovery some mistakenly attributed to the German scientist I. Tsizatu.Some are supporters of the version that it has opened a French astronomer H-K.Fabri de Peyresk.
Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA scientists discovered protoplanetary disk, which is located in the center of the nebula called the "Trapezium."The area got its name from the four massive stars that are arranged in a trapezoid shape.Nebula is a neighborhood very active young stars, hot gas and dust.Powerful source of blue glow in the center of it are four brightest stars of the Trapezium.Such a bright glow gives a reflection of their own light from the cosmic dust and radiation from ionized gas.Dark brown fiber dust cover a large area of the nebula.At the bottom of the nebula is several substellar objects - brown dwarfs.
This nebula has a very bright part in the center.Her so-called wings are characterized by rapidly decreasing brightness.In a place of convergence of the wings has black failure that is due to its characteristic pattern called a "fish mouth".Before the wings in the clear night you can see a straight strip, which is called "The Sword".Western inconspicuous part of the Orion Nebula known as "Sail".
The Orion Nebula is located inside our Galaxy at a distance from the Sun is 350 pc.Although laboratory vacuum tighter this nebula millions of times, and its mass is huge.
This space education earthlings observed for thousands of years.Many scientists say about detected facts confirming that the Mayan people of the stars of the nebula was world-famous Mayan calendar.
