Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found just below and to the left of the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion . This fuzzy patch contains one of the closest stellar nurseries, lying at a distance of about 1500 light years. In the above picture, the red region on the left consists of nebulae designated M42 and M43 and contains the bright Trapezium open cluster . The blue region on the right is a nebula primarily reflecting the light from internal bright stars.
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