Nebula M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection of the sky. Discovered by Pierre Méchain in early 1780, Charles Messier added it to his catalog the December 17, 1780. Belongs to Orion complex, a large cloud of gas and dust centered on the Orion Nebula M42/M43, and is about 1 600 light years away. It is the brightest portion of a vast cloud of dust which includes NGC 2071 (the Northeast, lower right in our image), NGC 2067 (near the northwest), and the very weak NGC 2064 (southwest), all visible in our image. Together with some other nebulae, including NGC 2024 (Orion B) near Zeta Orionis (sometimes called the Flame Nebula), all these nebulae are associated with the molecular cloud LDN 1630 (from the catalog Lynds Dark Nebula ) , part of the Orion complex.
As a reflection nebula, M78 is a cloud of interstellar dust that glow in the reflected and scattered light of bright blue (formerly type B), including HD 38563A brightest and second brightest HDE 35563B, both apparent visual magnitude of about 10. The nature of M78 as a reflection nebula was discovered by M. Vesto Slipher Lowell Observatory in 1919 (1919 Slipher ). At its distance, M78 measures almost 4 light years long.
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