NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 26, 2026, featured a deep image of M42, the Great Nebula in Orion, in assigned colors that emphasize hydrogen emission. The image brings out wisps and sheets of dust and gas in the nearby starbirth region, where glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud about 1,500 light-years away.

The Orion Nebula can be seen with the unaided eye near the three-star belt of Orion. Beyond the bright open star cluster known as the Trapezium, the nebula contains many stellar nurseries holding hydrogen gas, hot young stars, proplyds and stellar jets ejecting material at high speeds. M42 spans about 40 light years and sits in the same spiral arm of the galaxy as the Sun.

The image was credited to Roberto Palaia, with authors and editors Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti and Keighley Rockcliffe. The APOD page listed the following day's entry as Noctilucent Clouds over Sweden.