Apod 4.1

This photo depicts the Great Nebula, which is located in Orion. Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small fuzzy patch however as seen here (an illusory-color four-panel mosaic taken in different bands of infrared light with the Earth orbiting WISE observatory), the Orion Nebula is a bustling neighborhood of recently formed stars, hot gas, and dark dust. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula is the stars of the Trapezium star cluster, seen near the center of the above wide field image. The orange glow surrounding the bright stars pictured here is their own starlight reflected by intricate dust filaments that cover much of the region. The current Orion Nebula cloud complex, which includes the Horsehead Nebula, will slowly disperse over the next 100,000 years.