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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Water in Orion

Explanation: Is Orion all wet? Recent observations have confirmed that water molecules now exist in the famous Orion Nebula , and are still forming. The Orion Nebula (M42, shown above) is known to be composed mostly of hydrogen gas , with all other atoms and molecules being comparatively rare. The nebula is so vast , though, that even the measured minuscule production rate creates enough water to fill Earth 's oceans 60 times over every day, speculate discoverers led by M. Harwit ( Cornell ). The water that composes comets , the oceans of Earth , and even humans may have been created in a cloud like the Orion Nebula.

Date April 21, 1998
Credit Credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope photograph by David Malin
Copyright: Anglo-Australian Telescope Board
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.