Orion Nebula
M42 or known as Orion Nebula spans about 24 light-years across located in the Milkyway some 1,350 light-years away from the Earth in the constellation of Orion and can be seen by naked eye at the south of Orion’s belt.The nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being formed.Its central region home to four young,massive stars called the Trapezium.
Orion Nebula was discovered in 1610 by Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc and was recorded by Johann Baptist Cysatus in 1611.The first known drawing was created by Giovanni Batista Hodierna.However after all of these documents were lost,Orion Nebula once again credited to Christian Huygens 1656 and documented by Edmund Halley in 1716.At last Charles Messier ,an astronomers who invented the Messier Catalog,added the nebula to his catalog on 4 March 1769, as M42.