Why is M-42, the Orion Nebula, so important to us?

It is the closest and brightest region of active star formation visible to most of the astronomers of the world.  It is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, and a cinch to find just below the belt of Orion.  We can detect young protostars still hiding behind their cocoons of dust with infrared telescopes, and watch their T-Tauri winds blow away the dust and reveal the young stars stabilizing on the main sequence.  Many of the protostars show dusty disks, suggesting that planet formation is routine, and some brown dwarfs are also evident, still hot from gravitational contraction.