Few objects in the night sky are as widely photographed as the Orion Nebula. And for good reason. The colorful wisps of gas and dust are accessible to most good-sized telescopes and impossible to ignore even for those who operate the largest observatories.

At just 1,500 light-years away, Orion is the closest region of intense star formation. Stars form out of the gas and dust that makes up the nebula. The stars in turn light up portions of the cloudy surroundings.

A large cavity is created by radiation pressure from newborn stars, seen here in the brightest region of the image. Pink regions are hydrogen that is ionized by strong ultraviolet radiation from the hot stars. Blue is caused by light reflecting off dust that's mixed in the gas.

Various images of Orion reveal different mixes of color, depending on how the images are filtered and what goals the astronomers have. Here are two very different views:

Credit: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope / J.-C. Cuillandre / Coelum