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 recent 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 1500 light-years
would make it the closest known black hole to planet Earth. (Source: Milky Way Scientists.)
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