This drawing illustrates the important features in the Orion Nebula, as observed by the Near-Infrared Camera and MultiObject Spectrometer (NICMOS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. Red represents molecular hydrogen excited when supersonic gas flowing from a massive young star (or stars) collides with (shocks) gas in the parent cloud, green is atomic hydrogen excited by ultraviolet (UV) light from hot stars near the cloud surface, blue shows shocked or UV-excited iron both on the surface of the nebula and within the molecular cloud, and black areas represent starlight reflected from dust grains embedded in the cloud. This diagram was presented to the American Astronomical Society in San Diego, CA, on June 8, 1998. ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Angie Schultz, Ed Erickson, John Woebcke, and NASA

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