The Orion Nebula, aka Messier 42, is one of the brightest nebulae in the entire sky, forming the “sword” of the hunter constellation, Orion. M42 is about 14,00 light years away, and is about 24 light years in diameter. At mag. +4, it’s one of the very few nebulae visible to the naked eye. The nebula is absolutely beautiful, and is full of swirling gas and (predominantly) ionized hydrogen, causing the nebula to glow red, contrasting well with the dark dust surrounding it, part of the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, one of the most active star-forming regions in the entire sky.
The nebula is a crucial testing ground for theories of planet formation, as its been observed to contain over 700 stars in various stages of formation. Additionally, over 150 stars surrounded by dusty disks, called protoplanetary disks. As evidenced from their name, these “proplyds” are rings of ionized dust and gas orbiting a newly-formed star, which will eventually form planets.
Recent observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) revealed that the central region of the nebula alone contains over 500 Jupiter-mass planet-like objects floating through the nebula, unrelated to any star. Finding ONE planet-mass object chilling on its own without a star is weird enough, but finding PAIRS of them is even weirder, as JWST has discovered 9% of these objects, called JUMBOs, are observed to be in wide binary pairs. More research will help elucidate the full nature of these JUMBOs.