Want to be star-struck? Check NASA’s latest photo of the Orion Nebula

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) often leaves both space and non-space lovers mesmerised with its pictures that they post of outer space. And in its latest post, they upped the ante and did one better. NASA’s picture of the Orion Nebula on your screen is bound to leave to star-struck.

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Orion Nebula, which is only 1500 light-years away, is the closest large star-forming region to Earth. At the time of writing this article, the post had received almost a million likes.

The main nebula is also known as Messier 42 is completely visible to the naked eye, situated in the Milky Way, in the south of Orion’s belt in the constellation of Orion.

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Nebulae are clouds of gas and dust that represent either end of a star’s life cycle. It includes the Northern Hemisphere’s most prominent, reliable winter sights.

The Orion Nebula is fairly faint, which means one has to go somewhere dark and have to adjust their eye to really see it. The best time is to pick a night with no moonlight such as during a new moon.