The Great Orion Nebula:
The Great Orion Nebula can be found in the constellation of Orion which is named after a hunter in Greek mythology. Situated in the hunters sword the Orion Nebula is visible to the naked eye due it being one of the brightest nebula in the night sky. It may appear to resemble a fuzzy star but is in fact a bright cloud of gad and dust. At a distance of around 1344 light years away and 24 light years across the Great Orion Nebula is a stellar nursery which is home to around 2000 stars and protostars. It is characterised by an open cluster of four blue stars named The Trapezium. The brightest star of the bunch is a blue hypergiant named Theta1 Orionis C which is a binary star consisting of two massive stars C1 and C2. The…show more content… Although M43 may look red, its brightest star is a young, hot, ultra-massive blue star which seems destined to turn into a supernova within a few million years. The red colour appears as a result of the hydrogen gas that has been ionised. As the colour changes from red to blue, neutral gas and dust are reflecting blue light from the central star itself.
The Tarantula Nebula:
Located in the constellation Dorado, the Tarantula Nebula is another luminous stellar nursery in our night sky. Measuring 600 light years across and containing 800,00 stars and proto stars the tarantula nebula is one of the largest nebulas.
The nebula contains two clusters compact cluster R136 and Hodge 301. R136 is 35 light years wide and consist of numerous massive stars around 100 times the mass of the Sun. Although not a globular cluster yet it will likely become one in the future. The other cluster, Hodge 301 is a very old globular cluster with an estimated age of around 20-25 million years old. Due to its age some of Hodge 301’s massive stars have already reached the supernova stage of their life sending material into surrounding nebula at extremely fast speeds. The globular cluster still contains various massive stars some of which are expected to explode in their near future
