APOD Entry #1 on Orion Nebula

The Orion Nebula, classified as M42, is one of the brightest deepsky objects. It was discovered in 1610 (probably) by Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. It is the brightest diffuse nebula in the sky. It is 1,600 light-years away from the Earth.
It has been made into a Messier object. It has about 200 stellar embryos.