The Sword of Orion

Here is a picture of Orion taken by the Hershel Space Observatory.

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This picture was taken by the Hershel Space Observatory, which is run by the European Space Agency. The Orion Nebula is the closest area of star formation to Earth, at around 1500 light years away. The blue parts of the picture are the ones most easily seen in visible light, but the image is in infrared to give a better view. In visible light the red spine would be dark and block light.

The Orion Nebula was first discovered by Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc in 1610, and then independently found by Johann Baptist Cysatus the next year. It was discoverd first partly because it is the brightest nebula that can be seen from Earth. The Orion nebula is actually just the brightest part of a much larger nebula, which spans 10 degrees of the sky. [2]

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[1] [2]

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