Punching a hole in the sky

Inconspicuously tucked away a degree south of the Orion Nebula (M42) is the small reflection nebula NGC 1999. It sports a remarkable peculiarity: a dark, keyhole-shaped feature. Astronomers assumed that the globule was a likely star-forming region in front of NGC 1999, blocking light from the reflection nebula. That was a pretty good assumption, given that this part of Orion is bursting with new star formation. But then a 2010 study led by Thomas Stanke (European Southern Observatory) produced a startling result: The dark nebula turned out to be a void, or a cavity, running through the reflection nebula.

NGC 1999 is illuminated by V380 Orionis, a quadruple, pre-main-sequence star system located in the Orion A giant molecular cloud. The dark void to the star’s