The Orion Nebula is a vast cloud of gas and dust located in the constellation Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae visible to the naked eye and is situated about 1,344 light-years from Earth. The nebula is a stellar nursery, where new stars are being born from the surrounding material. Within the Orion Nebula, astronomers can observe young stars and protoplanetary disks, which are the early stages of planetary formation. The nebula is part of a larger region known as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, which contains several other nebulae and star-forming regions.