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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.   
      
                                  2024 January 5   
      
                         Trapezium: At the Heart of Orion   
               Image Credit & Copyright: Fred Zimmer, Telescope Live   
      
      Explanation: Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the   
      heart of the Orion Nebula, are four hot, massive stars known as the   
      Trapezium. Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius,   
      they dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster.   
      Ultraviolet ionizing radiation from the Trapezium stars, mostly from   
      the brightest star Theta-1 Orionis C powers the complex star forming   
      region's entire visible glow. About three million years old, the Orion   
      Nebula Cluster was even more compact in its younger years and a   
      dynamical study indicates that runaway stellar collisions at an earlier   
      age may have formed a black hole with more than 100 times the mass of   
      the Sun. The presence of a black hole within the cluster could explain   
      the observed high velocities of the Trapezium stars. The Orion Nebula's   
      distance of some 1,500 light-years would make it one of the closest   
      known black holes to planet Earth.   
      
                         Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend   
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          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.   
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                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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