A powerful telescope on Earth has peered into the heart of of the Orion Nebula 1,350 light-years from Earth and found something wonderful.

The nebula is apparently home to far more objects than ever expected.

By using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, scientists were able to look at the star-forming region in infrared light.

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This revealed multiple "low-mass objects" like brown dwarfs — also known as failed stars — and even cosmic objects that have a mass similar to that of a planet.

"Understanding how many low-mass objects are found in the Orion Nebula is very important to constrain current theories of star formation," Amelia Bayo, one of the scientists on the team that took the new photo, said in a statement.

In total, the image revealed 10 times more low-mass objects than previously expected.

Despite the fact that the Orion Nebula has been studied for decades, scientists are only just beginning to understand what may have led to the star formation happening within it, suggesting that star formation models for the area need to be refined.

“Our result feels to me like a glimpse into a new era of planet and star formation science," Holger Drass, another scientist working with the team, said in the statement.

Drass added that when the European Extremely Large Telescope comes online in 2024, it could reveal even more "free-floating" planets than seen in even this photo.

The Orion Nebula can actually be seen from Earth with the naked eye. The region looks like a fuzzy blotch within the Orion constellation, and it spans 24 light-years.

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