Messier 43
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Messier 43 is a glowing cloud of gas and ionized hydrogen located in the constellation Orion that lies near the famous Orion Nebula. It represents an active stellar nursery where new stars are being formed, making it scientifically valuable for studying how stars originate in our galaxy.
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Messier 43 or M43, also known as De Mairan's Nebula and NGC 1982, is a star-forming nebula with a prominent H II region in the equatorial constellation of Orion. It was discovered by the French scientist Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan some time before 1731, then catalogued by Charles Messier in 1769. It is physically part of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), separate from that main nebula by a dense lane of dust known as the northeast dark lane. It is part of the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex.
The main ionizing star in this nebula is the quadruple star system NU Orionis (HD 37061), the focus of the H II region, 1,360 ± 30 ly (417.0 ± 9.2 pc) away. This star system is not hot enough to produce significant amounts of [O III] emission, unlike the Trapezium in the Orion Nebula.