Orion's Belt Region in Gas and Dust

You may have seen Orion’s belt before — but not like this.

The three bright stars across this image are, from left to right, Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak: the iconic belt stars of Orion.

The rest of the stars in the frame have been digitally removed to highlight the surrounding clouds of glowing gas and dark cosmic dust. Some of these space clouds have intriguing shapes, including the Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula, both near Alnitak on the lower right.

This deep space image, taken last month from the Marathon Skypark and Observatory in Marathon, Texas, USA, spans about 5 degrees, required about 20 hours of exposure, and was processed to reveal the gas and dust that we would really see if we were much closer.

The famous Orion Nebula is off to the upper right of this colorful field. The entire region lies only about 1,500 light-years distant and so is one of the closest and best studied star cluster formation nurseries known.

Tonight: APOD Editor to Present the Astronomical Wonders of 2021.