The bright variable star V 372 Orion is at the center of this Hubble Space Telescope image, and a smaller companion star is also captured in the upper left corner of this image. Both stars are in the Orion Nebula, a massive star forming region located about 1,450 light-years from Earth.

V 372 Orion is a special type of variable star known as the Orion variable. These young stars experience certain turbulent moods and growth problems that astronomers see as erratic fluctuations in brightness. Orion variants are often associated with diffuse nebulae, and Orion’s V 372 is no exception; Patchy gas and dust from the Orion Nebula permeate this scene.

This image overlays data from two Hubble instruments. Data in the infrared and visible bands from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) were layered to reveal many details of this corner of the Orion Nebula.

Hubble also left his delicate signature on this astronomical portrait in the form of diffraction spikes surrounding bright stars. These remarkable artifacts are created by starlight interacting with Hubble’s inner workings, and as a result reveal clues to Hubble’s structure. The four spikes surrounding the stars in this image are formed by the four blades inside Hubble that support the telescope’s secondary mirror. The diffraction spikes of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope are hexagonal as a result of the hexagonal segments of the Webb mirror and the 3-prong support structure for the secondary mirror.