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The Orion Nebula is a glowing nebula with a greenish hue and is situated below Orion's Belt. It is possibly the brightest diffuse nebula visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of about 1,600 light years from the planet Earth, is 33 light years across, and can be seen clearly through even low-power binoculars, particularly from dark sky locations. Observations with powerful telescopes (especially the Hubble Space Telescope) have found stars enclosed in dust rings, probably the first phase of a planetary system formation. Photo credit: NASA |