M42, Running Man

The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M 42, or NGC 1976) is a luminous emission nebula (an H II region) located below Orion's Belt. It is the brightest diffuse nebula, with an apparent size of approximately 80 by 60 arcminutes—more than four times the area of the full Moon—and an apparent magnitude of about 4, making it clearly visible to the naked eye in the night sky. Its position on the celestial equator allows the nebula to be seen from almost anywhere on Earth. M 42 lies at a distance of roughly 1,344 light-years from Earth and spans about 33 light-years across. In the northern part of M 42, a dark dust lane runs through the nebula, separating its northeastern section, which is cataloged as M 43.