The Fire of Creation

Believed to be the cosmic fire of creation by the Maya of Mesoamerica, M42 blazes brightly in the constellation Orion. Popularly called the Orion Nebula, this stellar nursery has been known to many different cultures throughout human history. The nebula is only 1,500 light-years away, making it the closest large star-forming region to Earth , and visible with the naked eye. 

This beautiful portrait of the nebula was captured by a Takahashi FSQ-106ED telescope at Heaven's Mirror Observatory in Australia. It combines red, green, and blue channels with luminance data to create a detailed and natural representation of the nebula. 

The raw data was curated by a remote telescope service and then combined, calibrated, and processed by Richard Leighton to produce the final image.