The Flame Nebula, designated as NGC 2024 (and Sh2-277) is a emission nebula in the Constellation Orion. It is about 900 to 1,500 light-years away.
The bright star Alnitak, the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion, shines energetic ultraviolet light into the Flame and this knocks electrons away from the great clouds of hydrogen gas that reside there. Much of the glow results when the electrons and ionized hydrogen recombine. Additional dark gas and dust lies in front of the bright part of the nebula and this is what causes the dark network that appears in the center of the glowing gas. The Flame Nebula is part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, a star-forming region that includes the famous Horsehead Nebula.
This is my best effort to date with Global Rent A Scope. Name stamp, digital camera clean-up and gamma adjustments were all done with Thumbs Plus 7.0.
