... Near Orion's belt is a fuzzy area known as the Great Nebula of Orion or M42. ... New stellar systems are forming there in gigantic globs of gas and dust known as Proplyds. ... Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 earth-years, asteroid Eros is a diminutive 40 x 14 x 14 kilometer world of undulating horizons, craters, boulders and valleys. ... Just as the comet swooped inside the orbit of Mercury and developed a long and flowing tail of gas and dust, the Sun emitted a huge Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). ...