The Orion nebula is one of the most famous and easily viewed deep-sky sights. Located in the sword of Orion the Hunter, this distant cloud of gas and dust holds hundreds of young stars. At its center, a cluster of four bright, massive stars known as the Trapezium bathes the entire 30 light-year-wide nebula with powerful radiation, lighting the surrounding gas. Even a modest telescope reveals billowing ripples of matter gleaming eerily across the vastness of space.