It is one of the brightest nebulae visible to the naked eye in the night sky. It is located at a distance of 1,344 light years away and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across and to have a mass of about 2000 times the mass of the Sun.
It is an example of a stellar nursery where new stars are being born. Observations of the nebula have revealed approximately 700 stars in various stages of formation within the nebula. Interstellar clouds like the Orion Nebula are found throughout galaxies such as the Milky Way. It is in the stage of evolution, with additional stars still forming from the collapsing molecular cloud. The youngest and brightest stars we now see in the Orion Nebula are thought to be less than 300,000 years old, and the brightest may be only 10,000 years in age.
Some of these collapsing stars can be particularly massive, and can emit large quantities of ionizing ultraviolet radiation. Over time the ultraviolet light from the massive stars at the center of the nebula will push away the surrounding gas and dust in a process called photo evaporation. This process is responsible for creating the interior cavity of the nebula, allowing the stars at the core to be viewed from Earth
Within about 100,000 years, most of the gas and dust will be ejected. The remains will form a young open cluster of young bright stars surrounded by wispy filaments from the former cloud.
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